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Everything about Foobar

Placeholder variables in programming

The terms foobar, foo, bar, boom, baz, quux, and others are used as metasyntactic variables in computer programming or computer-related documentation. They have been used to name entities such as variables, functions, and commands whose exact identity is unimportant and serve only to demonstrate a concept. Wikipedia →

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

  1. Read the overview: FoobarA 5-minute orientation
  2. Pick up a classic book: Ho and listlessness listlessness granny gag gag tales of old Japan one of FooBar old man ISBNThe most-reprinted book on the subject
  3. Read the landmark paper: FooBaR: Fault Fooling Backdoor Attack on Neural Network TrainingCited 12 times
  4. Go sideways: Metasyntactic variableA closely related topic
  5. Go sideways: Tech Model Railroad ClubA closely related topic

📖 Definitions

Noun A serious mistake.

Noun A metasyntactic variable name, a place holder for words; compare foo, bar.

Noun ↑ “foo”, The Jargon File

🗂️ The subject at a glance

  1. History and etymology
  2. Examples in culture

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

📚 Books worth reading

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics