Error: Missing["UnknownSymbol", "*;"] while evaluating ?*;

Questions
1

I try to run the following command in Mathmetica:

?*;

But meet the following error:

Missing["UnknownSymbol", "*;"]

But if it will work without the ending ;. Any hints for this problem?

Regards,
HZ

2

The forms ? and ?? are handled specially. In particular, they allow wildcards, and the wildcard symbol in this context is *. They also seem to assume that everything following is the input and converts it to a string as needed. So it seems you can’t use them in a CompoundExpression.

I don’t know what you expect in terms of “hints for this problem”. That’s just the way it works. You could use Information instead

Information["*"](* same output as ?* *)
Information["*;"](* same output as ?*; *)
Information["*"];(* output suppressed *)
3

Thank you very much. All the questions have been explained. My original wording of “hints for this problem” is just a convention I like to use when asking questions. This phrase doesn’t have any preset expectations for a particular question, because the expectations themselves can be wrong or unrealistic until the question is understood.