Ask HN: How do you search for "-42" in Google? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you search for "-42" in Google?

14 pointsspacejunkie15 comments

Prefixing keywords with a minus sign tells Google to exclude those words from the search. So how can you search for something that begins with a minus sign, like a negative number?

View on HN

Punctuation is generally ignored in searches (some exceptions: _, +, $ and # in limited contexts, e.g. "C++", "$1000000" and "F#"; the calculator; word separators, e.g. "a=b", "a/b", "a}b", etc.; Google Code Search)

http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer... http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer...

Also, how do you search for anything with punctuation? I frequently use Perl, which makes use of punctuation for functions, and am constantly frustrated on how you can't search Google for them. Try searching for "perl $!" and you won't get any pages referring to Perl's error handling function. Not even results referencing Perl code that uses it. Google just ignores it.

C'mon...you've now gotta tell us why you were searching for "-42"...

Similar question for command line options in unix. :)

In GNU tools at least (not sure if others follow this convention?), the option '--' indicates that subsequent parameters aren't to be interpreted as options. For example, this lets you cd into a directory named '-foo':

   cd -- -foo

This is a feature of GNU `getopt`, and I think it's supported by most BSD getopts. It's also recommended behavior by the SUS, see guideline 10: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_...

So it's not mandated, but it's the behavior of nearly all modern UNIX systems.

This is useful to know, and a great tip! I actually meant that "the OP question applies to searching for info about command line options as well". I find it amusing how your interpretation is equally valid. There is a lesson about clarity of communication here. :)

(also thanks for the reply, I appreciate it even tho it wasn't what I was looking for)

this reminds me of the worst band name of all-time: !!!

they're actually fairly popular for those that aren't familiar, but i can only imagine how many potential fans they've lost because you can't readily find their online presences.

I'm reasonably sure that Google doesn't index punctuation marks.

Actually, a big point of pride for Google in the early days was that you could search for "C++" and get relevant results.

do search for negative 42. spell the word out. if you are lucky then google will pick up the integer -42 as a synonym and search it too.

search for minus 42.

"-42"

The - is ignored it seems.

That doesn't actually work, but for different reasons: Google drops the punctuation and just searches for "42".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com