Is it possible to search for punctuation/special characters?

Question

I tried to find a related question here, but was unsuccessful.

Someone on SO asked what does "!!" mean... I tried searching SO and was presented with the search options page. Even Google fails at this search.

So my question is, is there some way to search for an exact word (in quotes) that won't cause it to fail?

Answer 1

As part of the latest search engine changes, you can now search for symbols just by using quotes around your term or phrase, like this:

• Search for "==="
• or specifically within code blocks: code:"==="

Answer 2

As a manual solution add a tag with the prefix non-word- from this list:

&  (ampersand)
*  (asterisk)
@  (at-sign)
\  (backslash)
`  (backtick)
!  (bang)
{} (braces)
[] (brackets)
^  (caret)
:  (colon)
,  (comma)
$  (dollar-sign)
.  (dot)
"  (double-quote)
=  (equal-sign)
-  (hyphen)
<  (left-angle-bracket)
() (parentheses)
%  (percent)
+  (plus-sign)
?  (question-mark)
>  (right-angle-bracket)
;  (semi-colon)
#  (sharp)
'  (single-quote)
/  (slash)
~  (tilde)
_  (underscore)
|  (vertical-bar)

The Camel Book Index (Programming Perl) is used for the terminology. For example, tag non-word-tilde-tilde would be used for "~~". This tag would be added to SO question, What does “ ~~ ” mean in Perl?.

Using a tag would allow a person to determine that the dot at the end of this sentence does not get a non-word-dot tag.

Rather than placing tags on an entry simply placing these standard strings in the text would allow the existing search system to match at the author's discretion.

Answer 3

It is possible; but not on Google.

A search engine I helped develop, SymbolHound, allows you to search for special characters that are ignored by Google and other engines.

Here's a SymbolHound search for "!!":

Answer 4

Punctuation marks are normally not indexed. They do not convey information and are used much too often to produce any useful search result.

So in this case Jeff could think about, if he wants to make typical programming constructs searchable (!!, !=, ==, ===, ...). I think a proposal for this already exists, but I can't find it for some weird reasons ;)

Answer 5

Those with 2k rep and the ability to edit posts should go and verbosify the question text to explain the characters used.

Launch off with the list mentioned by C.W. Holeman II and make it accessible to everyone and anyone.

For example:

What does "!!" operator mean in javascript?

Gets superpowered for reading with an edit such as:

What does the !! operator (double exclamation point) mean in JavaScript?

Another one that would benefit would be something like Difference between || and 'or' in Ruby. Some people call || pipes. Others call it the vertical bars.

Doesn't matter what you drop, so long as you squeeze something out and put it into the bowl. Never hurts to explain those characters you're seeing in English words to help flesh out punctuation marks.

Helps the Google drifters and the users trying out the site search for the first time.

Answer 6

Nick Craver commented here that this feature is currently in testing as a Advanced Super Ninja Search Option, code. So to search for !! in code, you run the query code:"!!"

Answer 7

If you can't search for it in Google, the odds of us being able to search for it are vanishingly slim...

Well, I can search for !! on Google code search:

http://www.google.com/codesearch?q=!!&hl=en&btnG=Search+Code (discontinued March 2013)

Ability to search for programming punctuation would be an obvious improvement to this site.

Note also that Google does match SOME punctuation characters - C++ is the example I'm most familiar with.

Answer 8

Try searching for "double exclamation mark" or something like that. Someone writing about this has the reverse problem: how to be found.

this was the 4th link I found.

Answer 9

Add another feature to markdown for questions and answers wherein the author identifies character sequences as being indexed and searchable. CSV within braces, {}, would be used to define sequences such that their occurance in the article's code segments would cause the instances to be indexed and searchable.

This markdown would not be displayed but would index the equal-sign, plus-plus and semi-colons in the code fragment:

{=,++,;}

my i = 0; i++;

Then a later markdown would change the sequences to tilde-tilde and at-sign.

{~~,@}

my @results = grep {match_test($_)} @list;

This was provoked by SO answer, @array ~~ $scalar is true when $scalar is in @array.

Then in non-code sections double braces, {{}}, around any text instances would indicate the enclosed sequence is to be indexed and searchable. This sentence is making a made up reference to the {{~~}} in the above Perl fragment. The double braces will cause the tilde-tilde to be indexed and searchable.

Answer 10

If you can't search for it in Google, the odds of us being able to search for it are vanishingly slim...