March 29, 2024

What is Stack Overflow? A forum for all who code

What is Stack Overflow? A forum for all who code
Developers pointing at code on a PC in an office.

Luis Alvarez/DigitalVision/Getty Photographs

Stack Overflow is a dilemma-and-response web site that unites computer system programmers around the globe.

The website serves as a repository of facts about pc programming. It can be named just after the program mistake that happens when a software runs out of memory. 

Stack Overflow facilitates collaboration, dilemma-resolving, and knowledge-sharing amongst individuals, groups, and organizations.

Stack Overflow execs

  • Question queries and get simple, detailed solutions
  • Tags and filters make concerns and responses simple to obtain
  • Communities of like-minded laptop or computer programmers sharing facts
  • No commercials or spam
  • Voting system to encourage exact answers
  • Sensible contributors with rapid responses 

Stack Overflow negatives

  • Resistance to newbies inquiring queries
  • Guides about how to talk to a query are tricky for inexperienced persons
  • Down-voting by fellow customers without explanation or instruction
  • No way to refine and edit current questions and answers
  • Moderators really don’t constantly aid conversations effectively

The flagship web site of the Stack Trade Network, Stack Overflow hosts much more than 100 million site visitors each month. The community platform, founded by Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky in 2008, features questions and answers about computer programming. Stack Overflow provides means for individuals along with items for groups, advertisers, and expertise-seeking end users. 

Stack Overflow homes in excess of 22 million concerns and solutions. Each individual is tagged so you can filter for what you want. You can also filter by person. 

Members are categorized as new consumers, editors, or moderators. Extra user breakdowns consist of voting background and reputations.

Stack Overflow’s format resembles Reddit. Any visitor can research Stack Overflow, but you need to have a free account to participate.

Questions appear from novices and specialists alike, with thorough responses provided rapidly. Inquiries about how hard it is to discover coding and the easiest programming languages to learn accompany queries about innovative personal computer programming subjects.

The Stack Trade Community also hosts the Application Engineering Stack Exchange. It overlaps with Stack Overflow, but the latter focuses on coding and equipment. The former hosts queries and responses about methods improvement everyday living cycles.

Stack Overflow subjects fulfill the demands of programming fans, specialists, and authorities. Working with words and phrases and phrases that describe specific topics, or tags, will increase performance when discovering Stack Overflow. 

Well known tags consist of programming and scripting languages like:

Working methods like Android and iOS rank amid the top tags. 

But you can also obtain facts about every component of pc science, from the typical (databases, frameworks, and algorithms) to the specialized niche and unique.

How to get your inquiries answered on Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow delivers suggestions to help you ask a question in a way that will obtain an reply. Here’s a breakdown:

  1. Have a concise, descriptive title.
  2. Publish your concern employing correct terms, good grammar, and language that completely explains your challenge.
  3. Including code aids, but make positive you reveal the problem fully initially.
  4. Give more than enough information to help other people recreate your issue.
  5. Use all applicable tags.
  6. Proofread in advance of you article to ensure your question is distinct and concise.
  7. Reply to feedback and give solutions to follow-up issues from fellow consumers.

Additional free of charge coding sources

Stack Overflow can help you locate answers to issues about personal computer programming, but additional means exist that benefit coders and programmers. We have detailed some crucial web sites underneath. 

Codecademy

Codecademy is an interactive platform with free coding courses in 12 programming languages. Codeacademy also supplies profession path programs, projects, files, and a blog to give you perception into the earth of laptop programming. Pricing may differ.

Check out out our entire Codecademy evaluate below. 

Code Task

Code Challenge exists for people today who code. With question-and-reply community forums, conversations, posts, and a flourishing group with more than 15 million members, Code Job also characteristics competitions and surveys. 

GitHub

GitHub is a platform wherever users establish, distribute, and manage software package. GitHub people can accelerate their coding with computer software offers from the site’s registry. 

Coders can also publish code and share it with fellow users. This would make the web page a well-liked coding portfolio host.

GitLab

GitLab, a complete DevOps platform, allows software program industry experts to have out all undertaking responsibilities from a person spot. GitLab is an software with absolutely free open up and personal repositories of information. 

Buyers can accessibility GitLab’s neighborhood systems, technologies partnerships, and distant gatherings.

Quora

Quora, a general-goal concern-and-answer forum, also hosts information on computer programming topics. 

Quora has boards for coding tips, general details about programming, and discovering a lot more advanced aspects of the area. The website is searchable by search term.