almouattaz
Hi All!
I’ve met something easily reproductible and weird.
Bellow, you can see the versions of elixir and erlang I’m using as well as the lines I executed on iex:
Erlang/OTP 24 [erts-12.1.4] [source] [64-bit] [smp:8:8] [ds:8:8:10] [async-threads:1] [jit]
Interactive Elixir (1.13.0-rc.0) - press Ctrl+C to exit (type h() ENTER for help)
iex(1)> Map.values(%{a: 1})
[1]
iex(2)> Map.values(%{a: 12})
'\f'
I was expecting this return value [12].
Please tell me if you encounter the same results, if you know the reason behind this?
I suspect a bug but I’m just hoping for some anomaly in my thinking or setup 
Thanks! 
Where Next?
Trending in Questions
Other Trending Topics
Latest on Elixir Forum
Sponsor Spotlight
Build Elixir applications with speed and confidence.
Categories:
Sub Categories:
Forums
Popular Tags
- #ecto
- #liveview
- #troubleshooting
- #learning-elixir
- #library
- #deployment
- #erlang
- #testing
- #genserver
- #mix
- #absinthe
- #remote-other
- #otp
- #plug
- #how-to-question
- #macros
- #postgres
- #elixirconf
- #channels
- #exunit
- #discussion
- #code-sync
- #podcasts
- #javascript
- #onsite
- #dialyzer
- #docker
- #authentication
- #umbrella
- #full-time-contract
- #podcasts-by-brainlid
- #ecto-query
- #ai
- #elixirconf-us
- #blog-post
- #elixir-ls
- #phoenix_html
- #iex
- #graphql
- #genstage
- #websockets
- #supervisor
- #advent-of-code
- #distillery
- #processes
- #api
- #forms
- #elixirconf-eu
- #metaprogramming
- #hex
Our Sponsors
Build Elixir applications with speed and confidence.
Supporting innovation across the BEAM ecosystem.
We build reliable cloud platforms for business-critical systems.
Error tracking, logs, uptime, and Just Enough APM. Built for developers.
Elixir, Erlang & BEAM conferences from Code Sync - join us in 2026!
Practical resources that improve the lives of professional developers.
Master modern tools, write cleaner code, and tackle real-world challenges.
**Building the future of software with AI, trust, and human connection.**
The team behind Membrane, Popcorn, LiveDebugger. Available for hire.
Courses that'll move you from confusion to "Aha, now I get it!"
Showing Posts 1 to 2- Show Best Posts
- Show All (oldest first)
- Show All (newest first)
John-Goff
This is normal. See https://elixir-lang.org/getting-started/binaries-strings-and-char-lists.html#charlists for an explanation. Tl;Dr is that in erlang strings are lists of numbers, and elixir has a syntax for that as well to promote compatibility with Erlang.
Edit: also want to point out, you do have a list of numbers there, it’s just printed differently. Eg
'\f' == [12]almouattaz
Thanks a lot! So it was an anomaly in my thinking