How can I link to a specific answer?

Permalink for questions/answers can be copied from the box shown after clicking the "share" link as shown below

Permalink for the comments can be obtained by right-clicking on the posting Date/Time of the comment and copying the link address.

Recursive answer!

HTML anchor tags allow you to provide links to an element on the same page. You can use the same feature here as well.

To create this link:

1. Copy and store the URL of the question in a notepad
   (example: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/45597/how-can-i-link-to-a-specific-answer)
2. Then click on the "share" button on the specific answer you would like to link to and copy the URL
   (example: https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/45600/381523)
3. Append the first numeric value from step2 to the URL in step1 like below
   https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/45597/how-can-i-link-to-a-specific-answer/45600#45600
   Note: You need to add the number twice (with a # in between) so that the page doesn't reload if you click multiple times.

Benefits

• it will provide a readable url containing the question-text
• if you are a web-developer, you might already be aware of this use-case

I will just add a few comments on various formats of the link to an answer:

• As explained in other answer, you can get a link by clicking on share. Notice that if you do this while logged in the link contains your user id at the end - in my case I get: https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/45598/183484. The link works as well without user id and if you do not want it there you can simply remove it and you still get a working link: https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/45598 https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/45598 (This is useful if you do not want the link to reveal your identity. If you do not care much about badges, there is not actually much difference between using the two links.)
• By clicking on some link to answer you get link in address bar which has the following format: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/45597/how-can-i-link-to-a-specific-answer/45598#45598 How can I link to a specific answer? The advantage of this is that it contains also question id and it is at least partially human readable. (In fact, you can replace the part how-can-i-link-to-a-specific-answer by pretty much anything, as long as you keep it a valid url.)
• Quite often when I include a link in a post on Stack Exchange or in chat, I use [text](url) format. For example: [How can I link to a specific answer?](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/45597#45598) How can I link to a specific answer? or [jp2code's answer](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/45597/how-can-i-link-to-a-specific-answer/45598#45598) jp2code's answer, etc.¹ I will add that I obtained the first link using the bookmarklet "Formatted link to a webpage" from this page (Internet Archive). Personally, I find it quite useful - by one click it creates a formatted link, where the title of the post is included. (Or if some part of the page is selected, it is included is text.)

In case of link rot, I will copy here also the source of the above bookmarklet:

t=window.getSelection().toString();
if (!t && document.querySelector('h1')) {
  t=document.querySelector('h1').textContent.replace(/ \[closed\]| \[on hold\]| \[duplicate\]/g,'').trim();
}
else if (!t) {
  t=document.title.split('-')[0].trim(); 
}
u=window.location.href;
if (typeof StackExchange!=='undefined' && u.indexOf('area51')==-1 && /^[qa]/.test(u.split('/')[3])) {
      u=window.location.protocol+'//'+window.location.hostname+'/q/'+window.location.pathname.split('/')[2]+window.location.hash;
}
window.prompt('Copy to Clipboard','['+t+']('+u+')');

¹Stack Exchange quite often expands bare link to the question title. But this is not always reliable. And in this way you have a better control over the text.

Use the share button if you want to link to a specific answer.

If you'd like to link to a comment, copy the URL of the timestamp.

This answer is different from the other answer (pay attention to the end of the URLs).

I just appended the fragment identifier at the end of the question URL (without / or without duplicating it) and the page now does not even need to reload (in most cases).

1. Copy the question URL (you can right click on the question title and select Copy link)
   Example: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1471994/what-is-setup-py
2. On your desired answer, click the share button and copy the first number after /a/.
   Example: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1472014/8583692 ➜ 1472014
3. Append a # followed by the number from step 2 to the link from step 1.
   Example: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1471994/what-is-setup-py#1472014

Complete example:
[my link title](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1471994/what-is-setup-py#1472014)

The fastest way

1. Right click the answer's "Share" button
2. Either copy that URL or open it in new tab

Copying will result in a shorter link:

• https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/338482/776523

Opening in a new tab will expand into a full-length link with an anchor:

• How can I link to a specific answer?

The shortest URL

1. Right click the answer's "Share" button
2. Copy that URL
3. Remove the user ID "slug" from the end of the copied link

For example, this link copied from the share button:

• https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/338482/776523

Becomes this link:

• https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/338482

This is the shortest answer URL possible (without a shortener).