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Next to the search box, there's an "Advanced Search Tips" button that opens up an explanation about special characters used for special search queries.

But since special characters trigger special search features, how can you search for literally those special characters? Stack Exchange should make use of the backslash (\) to escape special characters in search queries.

I want to search for questions that literally contain "[on hold]" or "[protected]" in the title, but it's impossible to literally search for keywords with brackets in them.

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    Your title and question do not match. The last part of the question is the only part that I see as relevant. The rest seems like you are asking something else.
    – Belinda
    Jun 23, 2015 at 11:20
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    check out stackse
    – ren
    Mar 25, 2016 at 12:30

1 Answer 1

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That's not searching for special characters, but for question states.

The questions that are put on hold are the ones which were closed:

  • less than 5 days ago

  • with a reason, different from "duplicate"

  • without being migrated

So search for: closed:yes created:6d.. duplicate:no migrated:no.

But you can't search for protected questions, and there's a request to implement it.

I want to search for questions that literally contain "[on hold]" or "[protected]" in the title

You'd get zero results anyway, don't worry ;)

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    Uh, I think he wants to search for posts containing literally these terms, instead of invoking the magic behavior.
    – Ben Voigt
    Jun 19, 2015 at 23:51

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