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.”

Your question probably has an existing answer and might get closed as a duplicate. Before posting, 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.

Guidelines for Posting a Well-Composed Question

1. Title: Make it clear and concise.
   • 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?
2. Introduction: Start 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: Include only the necessary code.
   • Reproducible: Ensure someone can replicate the results using your code.
   • Example:

     import seaborn as sns
     import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
   
     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 applicable): Provide the exact error message.
   • Example: ValueError: could not broadcast input array...
5. Explain what you’ve tried: Detail your attempts 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: Mention the versions of libraries like matplotlib, pandas, and seaborn.

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

7. Use Proper Formatting: Code should be formatted using the {} button or by indenting with 4 spaces.

8. Tag Appropriately: Use relevant tags to attract experts in the domains.

9. Include Desired vs. Current Output: Clearly state what you expect and what is happening.

10. Be Respectful and Patient: Stack Overflow is a community of volunteers.

Engage with those who comment or answer. Once resolved, accept the best answer and upvote helpful responses. To mark an answer as accepted, click on the check mark beside the answer to toggle it from greyed out to filled in.

References

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