Microsoft and HackerRank bring executable code snippets to Bing’s search results pages
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Sooner or later, every programmer ends up searching for code snippets and algorithms. Most search engines, though, don’t exactly specialize in code search and so you end up with a couple of links (one of them most likely to StackOverflow). Now, Microsoft has partnered with HackerRank to bring code snippets right into its Bing search results pages — and as an added twist, you can also edit and execute this code right on those pages, too.
HackerRank co-founder Vivek Ravisankar tells me the project currently features over 80 code snippets that focus on the most commonly searched terms.
Microsoft is positioning this as both a productivity and learning tool.
“In addition to learning how a certain algorithm/code is written in a given language, users will also be able to check how the same solution is constructed in a range of other programming languages too — providing a Rosetta-stone model for programming languages,” says Marcelo De Barros, Group Engineering Manager for the UX Features and Shared Tools at Bing.
If you’re a Visual Studio user, it’s also worth checking out Microsoft’s Developer Assistant plugin (previously known as the Bing Code Search add-on), which allows you to find and reuse over 21 million code snippets and samples right from within the IDE.