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In computing, a question mark (?) can have several meanings: it can be a wildcard character in file searches and formulas, a conditional operator (? :) in programming to shorten if-else statements, a marker for missing or incorrectly encoded characters, or a help icon in user interfaces. It also has specific representations in character encoding standards, like ASCII code \(63\) and Unicode \(U+003F\). 

Common uses of the question mark

In programming

Conditional operator: Also known as the "ternary operator," it's used as a shorthand for if-else statements. The syntax condition ? value_if_true : value_if_false evaluates the condition and returns either value_if_true or value_if_false based on the result.

Wildcard character: In some functions or queries, a single question mark can match any single character. For example, h?t would match "hat," "hot," and "hit".

Encoding error: A question mark may appear when a program tries to display a character that it cannot represent, often due to an encoding issue.