

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

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?
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narb
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=134479)
[http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer...](http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861#exceptions)

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SpookyAction
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.

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

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sophacles
Similar question for command line options in unix. :)

~~~
_delirium
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

~~~
eklitzke
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_...](http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap12.html)

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

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thewordpainter
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.

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

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

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Rhapso
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.

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ksolanki
search for minus 42.

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clintcparker
"-42"

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

