# These symbols mean?

**URL:** <https://community.freefem.org/t/these-symbols-mean/1761>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [May 20, 2022, 12:03pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/these-symbols-mean/1761 "2022-05-20T12:03:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Qianrui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/9fc348/32.png) [@Qianrui](https://community.freefem.org/u/Qianrui)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2022, 12:03pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/these-symbols-mean/1761/1 "2022-05-20T12:03:02Z")

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What do these symbols mean?

> u \*= 1./N;

> b += bc1;

> b2 += bc2;

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**Author:** ![aszaboa](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.freefem.org/aszaboa/32/2918_2.png) [@aszaboa](https://community.freefem.org/u/aszaboa)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2022, 12:27pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/these-symbols-mean/1761/2 "2022-05-20T12:27:43Z")

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> [@Qianrui](#):
>
> u \*= 1./N;

The numerical values in the finite element object `u` , as a vector (if you have a vectorial finite elements, all components) are multiplied by 1/N.

> [@Qianrui](#):
>
> b += bc1;

The numerical values in the finite element object `bc1` , as a vector (if you have a vectorial finite elements, all components) are added to the values of the vector of values stored in `b`.

Accessing the values of finite objects as vectors is useful since you can do operations without costly interpolation.

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**Author:** ![Qianrui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/9fc348/32.png) [@Qianrui](https://community.freefem.org/u/Qianrui)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2022, 12:48pm UTC](https://community.freefem.org/t/these-symbols-mean/1761/3 "2022-05-20T12:48:52Z")

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Thank you very much for your reply. Good luck. 😃