# Searching for strings with \`@\` at symbol as the prefix

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/searching-for-strings-with-at-symbol-as-the-prefix/82538>\
**Category:** Meta Discussion\
**Created:** [June 10, 2022, 2:45am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/searching-for-strings-with-at-symbol-as-the-prefix/82538 "2022-06-10T02:45:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![akvsak](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/akvsak/32/37038_2.png) [@akvsak](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/akvsak)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 2:45am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/searching-for-strings-with-at-symbol-as-the-prefix/82538/1 "2022-06-10T02:45:31Z")

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I wanted to search for posts with `@time` in the search bar but keep getting username suggestions.

I also tried using quotes “`@time`” but it didn’t return anything.

Is there any workaround this? I am assuming Discourse assigns @ symbol for usernames first in the search.

thanks.

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**Author:** ![woclass](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/woclass/32/212699_2.png) [@woclass](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/woclass)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 5:14am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/searching-for-strings-with-at-symbol-as-the-prefix/82538/2 "2022-06-10T05:14:43Z")

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Try searching `"@" time`

It seems that discourse has weak support for special character searches.

> **[How to search for special characters like \`:=\`](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-search-for-special-characters-like/47923)**
>
> Hi - we use Discourse for our forum web site http://forum.skookumscript.com/. It’s for a programming language, so users want to occasionally search for special characters sequences like :=. This does not seem to work. Also reducing the min search...

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**Author:** ![akvsak](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/akvsak/32/37038_2.png) [@akvsak](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/akvsak)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 6:49am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/searching-for-strings-with-at-symbol-as-the-prefix/82538/3 "2022-06-10T06:49:41Z")

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thanks for the response. Based on your clue, I did some experimenting and found that putting a space before the @string and the whole thing within quotes gave results. i.e. `" @time"` or `" @btime"`

so basically the sequence `"` + `<space>` + `@`+ `searchString` + `"` seems to work. 🙂

 ![spacetime](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/0/8/08c8ba6262871dd8198948b3b8eeec0718a8fab0.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![gustaphe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gustaphe/32/18174_2.png) [@gustaphe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gustaphe)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 7:12am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/searching-for-strings-with-at-symbol-as-the-prefix/82538/4 "2022-06-10T07:12:13Z")

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> [@akvsak](#):
>
> `"` + `<space>` + `@`+ `searchString` + `"`

Don’t you mean `*`? 😛

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**Author:** ![akvsak](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/akvsak/32/37038_2.png) [@akvsak](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/akvsak)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2022, 10:23am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/searching-for-strings-with-at-symbol-as-the-prefix/82538/5 "2022-06-10T10:23:14Z")

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I didn’t want to get too symbolic 🙂