# Is there a symbol for potential equality?

Is there a symbol for potential equality? Essentially I'd like to condense:

$$(a = b) \lor (a \ne b)$$

so that I can express the phrase "a may or may not be equal to b". Apologies if my syntax is not entirely correct; I come from a computer science background.

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What context would you want to do this in? I would personally use an equals sign with a question mark above it. –  Tom Oldfield Dec 7 '12 at 23:50
That's what I've usually seen as well - what Tom suggested. –  Joe Dec 7 '12 at 23:51
What would you like a symbol that carries no information? Or if it should, what kind of information you would like it to have? –  dtldarek Dec 7 '12 at 23:53
From a logical point of view, $(a=b)\lor (a\ne b)$ is a tautology. One can condense it by saying nothing. –  André Nicolas Dec 7 '12 at 23:56
True, but I had a case in which I specifically wanted to emphasize that fact by asking whether it was the case that (a = b) or the case that (a ?= b)... unless there is a way to condense THAT? –  Jake Petroules Dec 8 '12 at 0:16

$$a \overset{?}{=} b$$