# Distinguishing between questions and answers in references.

I have noticed that users in the know can refer us back precisely to a question on a page of our site or to any specific answer they wish, on the same page.
Here is an example, where we can click either on "answer" and be sent to Jonas's answer or on "problem" and be sent to AKM's question just above.
How is that done?

• You can get those direct links by clicking on the little "link" on the bottom left corner of any answer/question. It is certainly a useful thing, especially when linking to an answer in a question with lots of them! Feb 4 '12 at 19:29
• That was quick, dear @Bruno, thanks a lot. But does it work? :-) Yes, fantastic! Why don't you upgrade your comment to an answer, so that I can have the pleasure to accept it? Feb 4 '12 at 19:54
• Dear @Zev, since you just edited my tag (which I had chosen a little at random) , I'll use the opportunity to ask: what exactly do "support" and "feature request" mean ? Feb 4 '12 at 21:05
• "Support" means "how do I use the site as it currently exists?", whereas "feature request" means "please change how the site works". Feb 4 '12 at 21:20
• Ah, thanks @Henning, your explanation makes the distinction perfectly clear. Feb 4 '12 at 21:50

You can get those direct links by clicking on the little "link" link on the bottom left corner of any answer/question. It is certainly a useful thing, especially when linking to an answer in a question with lots of them!

• You can even link directly to comments. For example, here's the link to Bruno's comment on the question: meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/3586/…. You can get the link by clicking on the time of the comment posting. Feb 4 '12 at 20:29
• Thanks @Jonas and thanks again, Bruno. You gurus will never cease to impress me... Feb 4 '12 at 20:56
• @Jonas: Could you perhaps post this way of posting comments as an answer to How to link to a comment? Your suggestion is much better and simpler that the one described there. Thanks! Feb 5 '12 at 5:06
• @Martin Sleziak: Done. Feb 5 '12 at 5:18

As mentioned in another answer, you can get link to specific answer by clicking on "share" just below the answer. Here is a link to a post on Meta Stack Exchange, which also shows some screenshots: How can I link to a specific answer?

Still, it might be useful to add some more details. (Some of the points explained below apply to links to questions as well.)

• Notice that link of you get from there is of the form math.stackexchange.com/a/id/uid where id is the id of the answer, and uid is your user id.1 For example, for the other answer to this question, you would get https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/a/3588/uid. The uid part identifies the user who copied the link, it is used for purposes of awarding announcer, booster and publicist badge.2,3
• If you prefer a link which does not reveal your identity (to be more precise, your account on this site), you can simply remove the part containing your user id. For example, you can use https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/a/3588.4
• Notice that if you actually enter the above link into the browser, you are redirected to: https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3586/distinguishing-between-questions-and-answers-in-references/3588#3588. This is also the format you get if you click on an answer in some list on the site. (For example, answers tab in the answerer's profile page.) This link contains both id of the question and id of the answer and the rest is created from the title of the question.5
• You can replace the part generated from the title by something else, as long as you get a valid url. For example, this is a link to the same answer: https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3586/test/3588#3588. And also https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3586#3588 and https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/q/3586#3588 link to the same answer.6

2If you get link in this way when you're not logged in, the uid is not included in the link.

3See also this post on Meta Stack Exchange: For what purposes is my user id used when sharing a link?

4This issue was discussed on MathOverflow Meta in connection with the possibility that somebody my include such link while refereeing a paper: Privacy of software-generated links to questions and answers. (Admittedly, it's a bit more likely that this might be an issue with a MathOverflow post than with a Math Stack Exchange post.)

5Having a link which contains also id of the question might be sometimes useful. For example, if you want link to the answer, but you expect that you - or somebody else - might at some point search for that link and they might use id of the question when searching.

6The latter is the format which you get as a link to the answer if you use the bookmarklet "Link" from here or here. (Since this page with Stackmarklets - Bookmarklets for Stack Exchange - no longer works, I have used links form Internet Archive.)