Stack Overflow is for professional and enthusiast programmers, or anyone who writes code because they love it. The best Stack Overflow questions generally have a bit of source code in them, but if your question generally covers…
- a specific programming problem, or
- a software algorithm, or
- software tools commonly used by programmers; and is
- a practical, answerable problem that is unique to software development
…then you’re in the right place to ask your question!
Please look around to see if your question has been asked before. It’s also OK to ask and answer your own question. Questions which are too broad, unclear, incomplete or primarily opinion-based may be closed by the community until they are improved.
Click here for tips on how to ask good questions that are likely to be well-received by the community and attract good answers.
Some questions that fit into one of the categories listed above may be closed by the community because they aren't generally a good fit here or need additional information:
Questions seeking debugging help ("why isn't this code working?") must include the desired behavior, a specific problem or error and the shortest code necessary to reproduce it in the question itself. See: How to create a Minimal, Reproducible Example.
Questions about a problem that can no longer be reproduced or that was caused by a simple typographical error. This can often be avoided by identifying and closely inspecting the shortest program necessary to reproduce the problem before posting.
Questions asking us to recommend or find a book, tool, software library, tutorial or other off-site resource are off-topic for Stack Overflow as they tend to attract opinionated answers and spam. Instead, describe the problem and what has been done so far to solve it.
Questions asking for customer support with third-party services (such as App Stores) are off-topic for Stack Overflow. Instead, please direct your questions to the relevant company/organisation's technical support team.
Legal questions, including questions about copyright or licensing, are off-topic for Stack Overflow. Open Source Stack Exchange or Law Stack Exchange may be suitable alternatives.
Questions about general computing hardware and software are off-topic for Stack Overflow unless they directly involve tools used primarily for programming.
Questions on professional server, networking, or related infrastructure administration are off-topic for Stack Overflow unless they directly involve programming or programming tools.
If your question is not on-topic for Stack Overflow, it may be on topic for another Stack Exchange site. If your question would be of interest to…
- Computer enthusiasts and power users, ask on Super User
- Professional system and network administrators, ask on Server Fault
- Operating and managing your own website, including questions about SEO, domain names, and web/email hosting, ask on Webmasters
- Users of Apple hardware, software, services, and associated products, ask on Ask Different
- Users of Linux, FreeBSD, and other Un*x-like operating systems, ask on Unix & Linux
- Users of TeX, LaTeX, and related typesetting systems, ask on TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange
- Database administrators and professionals, ask on Database Administrators Stack Exchange
- Statisticians, data analysts, and data miners, ask on Cross Validated
- SharePoint enthusiasts, ask on SharePoint Stack Exchange
If no site currently exists that will accept your question, you may commit to or propose a new site at Area 51, the place where new Stack Exchange communities are democratically created.