What is the origin of magic number 42, indispensable in coding?
coding-style, language-agnostic
Solution
The answer is, as people already have stated, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I made a little experiment and put a couple of numbers in the search field, and these are the results:
It seems like 42 beats its neighbors clearly, but it can't touch regular numbers like 40, 45 and 50, no matter how magical it is.
It would be interesting to do the same search in source code only.
Problem
Update: Surprised that it is being so heavily downvoted... The question is coding-related and before asking this question I have googled for "42" in combination with: - site:msdn.micrsoft.com - "code example" - "c#" - "magic number" And I am not an expert/fan of Western culture/literature. Also found, Why are variables “i” and “j” used for counters? [duplicate] which was not closed but even protected. I feel that everybody knows it, except me... What is the origin of ubiquitous magic digit 42 used all over the code samples and samples? How have you come using 42? because I have not ever come or ever used 42 After some search, I found MSDN doc on it: Magic Numbers: Integers: - "Aside from a book/movie reference, developers often use this as an arbitrary value" Well, this did not explain me anything. Which movies and books have I missed for all those years of being involved in development, coding and programming and around-IT related activities like rwquirements analysis, system administration, etc?? Some references to some texts using code snippets with 42 (just C#-related): Jérôme Laban. C# Async Tips and Tricks, Part 3: Tasks and the Synchronization Context ``` var t = Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1)) .ContinueWith ( _ => Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(42)) ); ``` MSDN Asynchronous Agents Library ``` send(_target, 42); ``` Quickstart: Calling asynchronous APIs in C# or Visual Basic ``` Office.context.document.setSelectedDataAsync( "<html><body>hello world</body></html>", {coercionType: "html", asyncContext: 42}, function(asyncResult) { write(asyncResult.status + " " + asyncResult.asyncContext); ``` Asynchronous Programming in C++ Using PPL ``` task<int> myTask = someOtherTask.then([]() { return 42; }); ``` Boxing and Unboxing (C# Programming Guide) ``` Console.WriteLine(String.Concat("Answer", 42, true)); ``` How To: Override the ToString Method (C# Programming Guide) ``` int x = 42; ``` Trace Listeners ``` // Use this example when debugging. System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Error in Widget 42"); // Use this example when tracing. System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine("Error in Widget 42"); ``` || Operator (C# Reference ``` // The following line displays True, because 42 is evenly // divisible by 7. Console.WriteLine("Divisible returns {0}.", Divisible(42, 7)); // The following line displays False, because 42 is not evenly // divisible by 5. Console.WriteLine("Divisible returns {0}.", Divisible(42, 5)); // The following line displays False when method Divisible // uses ||, because you cannot divide by 0. // If method Divisible uses | instead of ||, this line // causes an exception. Console.WriteLine("Divisible returns {0}.", Divisible(42, 0)); ``` WIKIPedia C Sharp (programming language) ``` int foo = 42; // Value type. ```