How to Create Effective Stack Overflow Questions

The Stack Overflow Tour states, we're working together to build a library of detailed, high-quality answers to every question about programming.

Which means, your question probably has an existing answer, and might get closed as a duplicate.

Prior to posting a question, verify your question is allowed, review How do I ask a good question?, and contributors usually expect some adherence to → How much research effort is expected of Stack Overflow users?.

Questions not showing any effort, or with just text requesting a resolution, are likely to be downvoted and closed.

Consider the following guidelines for posting a well-composed question on Stack Overflow to increase the chances of receiving accurate and prompt answers.

1. Title: Make it clear and concise. The title should give an overview of the problem so that potential answerers can quickly understand the issue.

   • Example: "How to rotate x-axis labels"

   • Do not put tags, like seaborn, matplotlib in the title. See What are tags, and how should I use them? for the full discussion.

2. Introduction: Start your post with a brief description of your goal.

   • Example: "I am trying to create a Seaborn plot with rotated x-axis labels."

3. Provide a Minimal, Reproducible Example (MRE): This is critical.

   • Minimal: Only include the necessary code (or sample code) to reproduce the problem or illustrate your question. Remove everything that doesn’t matter to your current issue.

   • Reproducible: Make sure that someone can copy and paste your code into their environment and achieve the same results. This typically involves providing a small dataset or a way to generate one.

     • Do not post images of code or data
     • Most contributors will not respond to questions without data.
       • If you must share a file, share it on a free GitHub account, not some other untrusted file sharing service.
       • Optionally, use a dataset from seaborn with df = sns.load_dataset(name), or scikit-learn datasets.
       • How to provide a reproducible copy of your DataFrame with to_clipboard
       • How to easily share a sample dataframe using df.to_dict
       • How to make good reproducible pandas examples

   • Example:

       import seaborn as sns
       import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
     
       # Sample data
       data = {'fruit': ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry'], 'count': [5, 7, 3]}
       df = pd.DataFrame(data)
     
       sns.barplot(x='fruit', y='count', data=df)
       plt.show()
     

4. Include the Error (if there is one): If you encounter an error, provide the exact error message.

   • Example: "ValueError: could not broadcast input array..."

5. Explain what you’ve tried: Detail the approaches you've already taken to solve the problem.

   • Example: "I've tried using plt.xticks(rotation=45), but it doesn’t seem to have any effect."

6. Include Versions: Especially for libraries like matplotlib, pandas, and seaborn, the version can sometimes be the cause of or solution to a problem. Use the following to get the version:

    print(pd.__version__)
    print(sns.__version__)
   

7. Use Proper Formatting:

   • Code should be formatted using the {} button or by indenting with 4 spaces.
   • If showing a traceback/error, format it as code so it's readable.
   • Use bullet points or numbered lists if appropriate.
   • How do I format my posts using Markdown or HTML?

8. Tag Appropriately: Tagging helps get the attention of experts in the relevant domains. In your case, you might want to tag python, matplotlib, pandas, and seaborn.

9. Include Desired vs. Current Output:

   • Clearly state what you expect to happen or what you want to achieve.
   • Explain what's currently happening and how it differs from your desired output.
   • If necessary, include a hand-drawn example.

10. Be Respectful and Patient: Remember that Stack Overflow is a community of volunteers. Always be polite, and don't bump your questions unnecessarily.

After posting your question, actively engage with those who comment or answer. If someone provides a solution or asks for clarification, respond promptly and courteously.

Once your question is resolved, don't forget to accept the best answer and upvote helpful responses. This rewards contributors and helps future readers identify the useful solutions.

• To mark an answer as accepted, click on the check mark beside the top left corner of the answer to toggle it from greyed out to filled in.
  • The ✔ is below the ▲/▼ arrow.
  • What should I do when someone answers my question?

References

1. Stack Overflow Help Center
2. The SSCCE: Short, Self Contained, Correct (Compilable), Example