# Using macroexpand inside a macro in Clojurescript doesn't work
**URL:** https://clojureverse.org/t/using-macroexpand-inside-a-macro-in-clojurescript-doesnt-work/6516
**Category:** Troubleshooting
**Tags:** macros, clojurescript
**Created:** [September 8, 2020, 10:53am UTC](https://clojureverse.org/t/using-macroexpand-inside-a-macro-in-clojurescript-doesnt-work/6516 "2020-09-08T10:53:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jpmonettas](https://clojureverse.org/u/jpmonettas)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2020, 10:53am UTC](https://clojureverse.org/t/using-macroexpand-inside-a-macro-in-clojurescript-doesnt-work/6516/1 "2020-09-08T10:53:46Z")
Hi everybody!,Does anybody knows why this macro
```clojure
(defmacro tester [form]
(println (macroexpand form))
nil)
```
When used from clojure :
```clojure
(tester (let [a 5] a))
;; prints
(let* [a 5] a)
```
But when used from clojurescript :
```clojure
(tester (let [a 5] a))
;; prints
(let [a 5] a)
```
So the same macro doesn’t do the same, macroexpand doesn’t work at macro level when the cljs compiler calls it
---
### Author:  [@didibus](https://clojureverse.org/u/didibus)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2020, 2:05am UTC](https://clojureverse.org/t/using-macroexpand-inside-a-macro-in-clojurescript-doesnt-work/6516/2 "2020-09-09T02:05:56Z")
There is no `macroexpand` in ClojureScript. ClojureScript cannot expand macros, only Clojure can.
And in your case, I’m guessing maybe your macro isn’t defined properly for ClojureScript. I forgot the rules, but it is a bit tricky. The macro has to be in a `.clj` file, and in ClojureScript you need to call `require-macro`.
---
### Author:  [@jpmonettas](https://clojureverse.org/u/jpmonettas)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2020, 11:33am UTC](https://clojureverse.org/t/using-macroexpand-inside-a-macro-in-clojurescript-doesnt-work/6516/3 "2020-09-09T11:33:56Z")
Sorry, maybe I didn’t specified all the details.
This is a normal Clojure macro defined in a macros.clj file.
So it goes something like this:
**In macros.clj :**
```
(ns project.macros)
(defmacro m [form]
(let [form2 (macroexpand form)]
;; do something with form2
))
```
**In test.cljs :**
```
(ns project.test
(:require-macros [project.macros :refer [m]])
(println (and 1 2))
```
So if I use that same macro from a clojure project, form2 gets bind to
```
(let* ... (if* ...))
```
While when using it from clojurescript form2 gets bind to
```
(and 1 2)
```
Shouldn’t the macro be expanding the same, since it is compile time and clojure world?
---
### Author:  [@system](https://clojureverse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://clojureverse.org/t/using-macroexpand-inside-a-macro-in-clojurescript-doesnt-work/6516/4 "2021-03-10T23:34:00Z")
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