Cardinal Sign

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Stela
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Cardinal Sign

Post by Stela »

Hello…

Can someone tell me what the Cardinal ( # ) sign means?

Example:

#FileName = "Connector.html"
#Type = "MYSQL"
#HTTP = "True"

Thanks!
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califdon
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Re: Cardinal Sign

Post by califdon »

It means different things in different contexts. Depends on whether it's in a source file (what language?) or configuration file, etc. Most commonly, and almost surely in the context you showed, it indicates that anything following it on that line is only a comment and will be ignored.
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pickle
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Re: Cardinal Sign

Post by pickle »

I've never heard it called the "cardinal" sign. Only the "pound" sign.

What ~califdon said is right.
Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
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McInfo
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Re: Cardinal Sign

Post by McInfo »

It's also called an octothorpe. I like to think "eight thorns", but that is probably incorrect since thorpe appears to be related to a cluster of houses.

Edit: More at World Wide Words

Edit: This post was recovered from search engine cache.
Last edited by McInfo on Wed Jun 16, 2010 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
Stela
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Re: Cardinal Sign

Post by Stela »

Well, I only used the google translator, in portuguese that sign is called "cardinal".

Thanks for the answers :D
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VladSun
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Re: Cardinal Sign

Post by VladSun »

In Bulgaria it's called "диес" [die's]. Especially when referring to the telephone keypad button # :)
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't
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Weirdan
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Re: Cardinal Sign

Post by Weirdan »

VladSun wrote:In Bulgaria it's called "диес" [die's]. Especially when referring to the telephone keypad button # :)
Here it would be "диез" [die'ʒ], but more commonly when referring to music notation sign.
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onion2k
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Re: Cardinal Sign

Post by onion2k »

pickle wrote:I've never heard it called the "cardinal" sign. Only the "pound" sign.

What ~califdon said is right.
I hate it when people call # a pound sign. This is a pound sign: £

</british>
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papa
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Re: Cardinal Sign

Post by papa »

It's called square in Swedish... :P
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jayshields
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Re: Cardinal Sign

Post by jayshields »

I must be the only one thinking I'm looking at a different character.

# is a hash...
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califdon
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Re: Cardinal Sign

Post by califdon »

jayshields wrote:I must be the only one thinking I'm looking at a different character.

# is a hash...
Nah, that's what you smoke.
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