Questions tagged [answers]
For questions regarding answers posted to challenges. This tag is not for questions about a specific answer, but for answers in general
179
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For lambdas that is, how should we input them into tio.run?
following this meta codegolf stackexchange post, I've stopped using declarations for lambda functions, but one problem this creates is that since you're only inputting the lambda body and not its ...
Wheat WizardMod
- 84.4k
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answers
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Loopholes that are forbidden by default
There are a number of standard loopholes which experienced question-setters seek to explicitly close. However, inexperienced question-setters may unintentionally leave them open, or respondents may ...
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Let's allow newer languages/versions for older challenges
I've been thinking for a long time that our non-competing policy for newer languages (or language versions) is harmful. Just for context, we currently require all answers which require implementations ...
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What's the policy on interpreter bugs? [duplicate]
Sometimes there are bugs in interpreters that make them unable to run programs that are valid by the specification of the language, or make them work incorrectly.
This will break programs using those ...
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Command-line flags on front ends
Our standard policy regarding command-line flags states that one should count the space before the dash (-) too, when there aren't any "free" options, since it ...
- 18.2k
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answer
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Can the “How to Answer” pop-up disregard the association bonus?
We now have a custom “How to Answer” pop-up (yay!). However, this pop-up isn't shown to users who come here with the association bonus from other SE sites. In general, this behaviour makes sense: the ...
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Clarifying "serious contender" in the help center
The help center says:
All solutions to challenges should:
Correctly implement the required specification.
Be a serious contender for the winning criteria in use. For example, an entry to ...
- 40.1k
29
votes
12
answers
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Could PPCG benefit from a new sorting mode for answers?
The default sorting for answers (by votes) seems somewhat inappropriate here on PPCG. In any case it tends to put early answers over late answers, because once a few are there, few people scroll to ...
- 40.1k
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Sorting answers [duplicate]
Some popular challenges have many many answers and often a language is used more than once, so :
Is there a way to sort answers so that they appear in the order according to the name of a language OR ...
- 40.1k
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Make it easier to post answers on Sandbox from Mobile App?
Maybe I'm missing something, but is there an easy-ish way to initiate the process of writing an answer in the Sandbox from the mobile app? I noticed the phrase "bottom of the page" in the sandbox ...
- 40.1k
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Metadata for answers?
It would be great to have an option in answers to add metadata. (This would be most useful for questions tagged code-golf, but maybe also other tags?) You would be able to put in the language, the ...
- 40.1k
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Acceptable answer for a code golf
The Code Golf stackexchange tour gives a detailed explanation on, how to ask a Code Golf question.
But what about how to answer? I have multiple questions about: How to give an answer?. Neither the ...
- 46.7k
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answer
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Stop converting duplicate answers to comments
In case you didn't know, whenever you post the exact same answer as was already posted, it gets converted to a comment.
I had no idea before I posted a crack on a cops-and-robbers post that someone ...
- 40.1k
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votes
4
answers
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Pointing out bugs without comment privilege
I found a bug in a code golf submission but do not yet have commenting privilege. Is there a polite way for me to let the user know about this bug?
The site offers me to "suggest an edit" but I'm not ...
- 46.7k
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Correct flag usage on invalid submissions
Recently, a couple of invalid answers have been flagged as NAA. This is somewhat of a duplicate of this answer on our policy, but I want to mention this because it's important that everyone is using ...
- 40.1k
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Handling old, popular, creative, but non-competitive answers
Take a look at this answer: Produce the number 2014 without any numbers in your source code.
This is the most upvoted answer on our site right now. However, as many have pointed out, by modern ...
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Should submissions be allowed to exit with an error?
Suppose we have the following Python code:
f=lambda x:x*2
X
The first line defines a function which doubles a number. Then the second line is reached, is found ...
- 40.1k
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Can Whispers programs ignore a final output line?
This was first asked by Leo in the Whispers chat room:
But I have a general question about Whispers submissions: couldn't we avoid counting the final Output line most of the time? We can consider the ...
- 11.7k
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1
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What to count in assembly?
Yes, I've checked this post (How are bytes counted in assembly), but I'm asking a different question. I'm asking, if I have an .asm file, an ...
- 11.3k
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1
answer
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What's our policy on "reposting" older answers with newer versions?
On occasion, especially with a couple of specific, inactive users, I'll craft a Jelly answer identical to an existing answer, except for a few byte-saving substitutions that have been added to the ...
- 3,369
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Are compile-time solutions valid?
I have a couple answers here that work at compile-time and just posted another, and I was wondering if such solutions are allowed. I'm not talking about just proper functions that can run at compile-...
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Should I upvote an answer based on how much it was improved?
Should I hold how much an answer's score increased/decreased (depending on the winning criterion) as an indicator of how good it is and whether or not I should upvote it?
I used to see answers golfed ...
- 22.3k
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5
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Why are some users so quick to jump on a bandwagon?
I've been lurking on this site long before I made my account, and I've seen many cases where people are downvoted simply because they post an answer in the same language as someone else and it happens ...
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How should the length of a Commodore 64 BASIC program be measured?
Commodore 64 BASIC has abbreviated forms for most of its keywords, ranging from ? being short for PRINT (common across many ...
CommunityBot
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For fastest-code questions are new compiler optimisations as non-competing allowed?
I looked around and it seems that the language is defined by the compiler not operational semantics. In normal code golf new languages are banned because of the loophole of implementing the answer as ...
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Existence of known score but unknown exact code
Consider the following the challenge:
Write a program that accomplishes X task while maximizing the number of distinct characters in your source code. Removing any set of characters from the ...
Wheat WizardMod
- 84.4k
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answers
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What's a number? [duplicate]
Similar to What's a string?
If a challenge says that the input will be “a number”, what data types are acceptable?
Obviously, types like int and ...
- 6,521
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Definitive policy about answers not meeting the challenge specification
This question has been asked so often, I have no idea what our actual policy is:
Almost-correct answers
Should answers that break the rules be deleted?
Should we flag and delete Not an Answer posts?
...
CommunityBot
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2
answers
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Can I change the version of the language in my answer (Python 3 to 2), or do I post a new answer?
I wrote a Python 3 answer. I called it Python 3 in the title; however, it works equally well in Python 2. I discovered that I am able to remove several bytes from the answer, but only if I use Python ...
CommunityBot
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answer
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Adding a link to Try It Online to existing answers
If I find an old answer whose code I verified works using, say, Try It Online, can I edit that answer and add the link?
- 27.1k
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what did I do wrong and how can I improve
why did they put this challenge on hold?
How could I have made it clearer?
Benjamin has N boxes in his garden with dimension xiyizi each. Because he does not want to let them out and get wet, he ...
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How to count bytes FAQ
We've got a lot of questions asking how to count the bytes in different situations. This question is here to put them all in one spot.
General questions
How to count "interactive" answers ...
CommunityBot
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0
answers
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Scratch 2.0 is no longer considered a "free" language. Does this retroactively make cops-and-robbers cop answers in Scratch 2.0 non-competitive?
As per this question's answers, Scratch 2.0 is no longer considered a "free" language. As per this question's accepted answer, non-free languages are allowed if marked as non-competing.
Scratch 2.0 ...
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Is a regex answer valid if it gives the reciprocal of the required output? [duplicate]
This answer gives the reciprocal of the required output, rather than the required output itself.
In a simpler challenge this might cut out a significant part of the work, but for this particular ...
CommunityBot
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Which number formats are acceptable in output?
Comments on this loophole meta answer suggest that more than a simple yes or no answer is required.
Which number formats are valid for output? Is there a difference between code-golf and other tags? ...
CommunityBot
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answer
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Does linter golf require a specific interpreter to be a valid answer for golf?
If someone answers a code-golf challenge in, for example, JavaScript, and as an additional challenge restricts to only code that is approved by http://www.jslint.com/ that answer is valid if an ...
CommunityBot
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Is it permitted for a submission to terminate merely with probability 1?
The question is in the title. I'm interested in submissions that terminate with probability 1 but have unbounded worst case running times.
This is related to the question Do programs have to ...
CommunityBot
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What should we do when a language cannot answer a given challenge?
Many challenges, mainly restricted-source, are impossible in some languages. Find an Illegal String is a good example—many languages without syntax errors, such as brainfuck (deleted answer), ...
- 21.2k
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answer
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Post other people's code?
Some people are very good code golfers but for their own reasons do not want to join PPCG. Is it acceptable to post their solutions as answers to challenges?
If at all acceptable, I would personally ...
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When can APL characters be counted as 1 byte each?
Prompted by this.
The question of APL's encoding often comes up, and many times a helpful soul links to Wikipedia's article on the APL EBCDIC codepage. However, each implementation of APL has its own ...
- 27.1k
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What's the complexity of my answer?
I've never studied any computer science. So I've always passed over restricted-complexity questions, since I had no way of knowing the complexity of my code. Today, I decided to try and see whether I ...
- 41.3k
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votes
1
answer
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Invalid answers in the review queue, but OP hasn't had time to fix it
It happens quite frequently that short answers (Title + Code) appear in the Low Quality review queue, due to the automatic flagging mechanisms.
In most cases, the answer "Looks OK". However, there ...
- 42.8k
-2
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1
answer
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User disobeying rules?
So last question that I posted. i.e : this, I wanted to ask because a specific new user whom I have warned almost on all answer he has posted (5-6) was not following, yet he keeps answering with ...
- 57k
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3
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What to do when almost all answers are wrong?
In a recent challenge, almost all answers use an algorithm that yields the wrong results due to floating point errors.
The challenge is/was not unclear, but there was no test case that led to the ...
CommunityBot
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Is a proof of impossibility allowed as an answer?
I was thinking of a proof of impossibility for a long-running unanswered question on this site. By a proof of impossibility, what I mean is a proof that no possible answer can solve the challenge. ...
CommunityBot
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Is it legal to submit a function that must exist as a method on an object?
For a challenge, I recently submitted the JavaScript solution
[].push
To be clear, this isn't x=>[].push. The entry itself ...
CommunityBot
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Programming in Minecraft (Redstone) - how to measure program size?
Since programs may be created in vanilla (un-modded) Minecraft using redstone to create logic gates (and more), someone could create such a program for a challenge on this site.
How would such an ...
CommunityBot
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What are the standard requirements for answering a [random] challenge?
There are lots of of challenges involving randomness. However, not all languages have a built-in method for randomness. Some languages, like python or most golfing languages make it really easy. You ...
CommunityBot
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Is boiler-plate code required for challenges? [duplicate]
When solving a puzzle with an appropriate solution, does the programming language standard boiler-plate source code need to be included:
For example, should I include all of this:
...
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Getting Started
I've been lurking for quite a while and have realized (after a technical interview) that I'm really out of practice solving problems like what is here. Is there a language that you recommend I start ...
- 14.5k