Questions tagged [xy-problem]
The XY problem is asking about an attempted solution rather than the actual problem.
29 questions
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If I ask a question but it turns out to be totally XY, should I hack up the original question to re-state it, or should I ask a new one?
I asked this question, and it got a variety of answers & comments. But some readers suggested it was an XY Problem. I stepped back & thought about it, and they were totally right. It's a big ...
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Highly upvoted question asking for a general and a specific solution, where the answers to each are very different
Stack Overflow question How can I reverse a Java 8 stream and generate a decrementing IntStream of values? (previously titled as "Java 8 stream reverse order") states that it is asking both ...
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Add an explanation of the XY problem to the help center
This answer on Stack Exchange Meta would be a good basis for a help center article.
It still needs a bit of work; namely I think the example is too long.
Questions which are XY problems frequently ...
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Question closed: Was my explanation poor or is it an XY problem?
My question was closed with the reason that it was a duplicate. But, to me, the referenced question is completely different.
I agree I can still learn a lot about debugging, but my question was about ...
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How should I handle this question having bounty needs to solve an XY problem? [duplicate]
I proposed two solutions to this bounty question, both of which were negatively taken by the author of the question. At the time of writing the answer, the question itself lacked proper information on ...
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What should I do if the issue I asked about was actually not the actual issue?
I had an issue with my code and decided to ask someone for help. With the help of other users (who wrote valid answers to my original question), I found out the issue was being caused by another, ...
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(How) should one defend against the "dual XY problem" properly when posting a question?
Background
From my experience, both when asking my own questions and when finding past questions and answers, a major bane of SO is the infamous so-called "XY problem" - and not technically ...
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Should I post a new question if there is an exact duplicate that has an accepted answer that does not answer the question?
The question I have is, How to get the item count of a CharacterSet in Swift. It was pointed out that it is most likely an example of an "XY Problem," which the OP agreed it was, and has an ...
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Should "xy problem" questions be updated so the question is in line with the accepted solution?
I've seen questions that are handled and resolved as "xy problems". Let's say it's a more subtle case, giving a specific answer to a generic question. The answer gets accepted, while the actual ...
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What is an appropriate response to answers that correctly identified a question author's XY problem when my problem really is X?
The other day I found How do you write the end of a file opened with FILE_FLAG_NO_BUFFERING?, which is a question I had, too. (Mine was slightly different in that I am not using ...
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Add shorthand magic link for XY problem [duplicate]
This is a spritual duplicate of this question but as:
I don't think that was originally tagged as a feature-request
the most upvoted answer recommends making a NEW question with that tag (which I ...
- 14.5k
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How to Handle XY Problems for Off-Topic X [duplicate]
Preface: There are a large suite of questions on meta about handling XY problems; I have looked at this, but never found any that met my criteria. This talks about handling XY Problem questions, but ...
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How to respond to XY problem when Y is an already answered (duplicate) question?
(Removed the post from Meta and posting here on Meta SO instead, as per the response I received on Meta.) The SO question that got me interested in this type of phenomenon.
Minor caveat: It's not ...
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Editing Questions and Answers to remove the Y from XY-Questions
There is already a similar question, regarding: I, myself, am the author of an XY-Question
Now I came across a similar situation as a reviewer:
A question, that was somewhat a XY
One answer, that ...
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Is a question on-topic if it's about programming but the problem that needs to be solved isn't?
Are "XY"-type questions on topic if the problem the OP was trying to solve is off-topic for Stack Overflow but the question they're asking is?
Example:
Bob has a problem with his computer (...
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