Off topic
Assistance in writing or debugging existing code
Questions asking for assistance in writing or debugging existing code are off-topic here. These questions can be asked on Stack Overflow if they 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, Complete, and Verifiable ExampleHow To Create a Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable Example.
Asking for debugging help or “how do I write this specific code” type questions are off topic on Software Engineering SE.
These questions have a site that is completely focused on them – Stack Overflow. Trying to answer them here reduces the usefulness of Stack Overflow (now you have to search two sites for the same information), and makes it harder to find the software architecture and design questions that Software Engineering SE focuses on.
If you are having trouble posting a question on Stack Overflow, and have come to Software Engineering SE as a way to get around that, look very closely at the quality of the post.
- Make sure the words are all spelled correctly, and punctuation is properly used (see Spell Check plus.com as one of many online grammar checkers).
- Make sure that the code is formatted correctly (see Markdown helpMarkdown help if you are having trouble with this).
- Make sure that the title of the question is a good title that describes the actual problem: “Why can't I use
==to compare strings” is a better title than “Help, I have a question about compilers”.
Software Engineering SE is reluctant to migrate questions to Stack Overflow that would result in the question being closed there too. The reasons on SO are covered in What topics can I ask about here?What topics can I ask about here? in the SO help center. In particular, a “why isn't this code working” question about debugging existing code needs to thoroughly and completely describe the problem – nobody can guess what you're trying to do.
Neither Software Engineering SE nor Stack Overflow is a code writing service. Questions asking someone to write code from scratch (or from some requirements provided) will be closed on both sites.
If you are blocked from asking questions on Stack Overflow, please do not ask them here in an attempt to get around the block. Both Software Engineering SE and Stack Overflow have automatic question bans in place. Asking off topic questions here will get them closed. Even if it's a good question that might be migrated to Stack Overflow because it wouldn't get closed – the system prevents us from migrating those.
Related reading
Quick link: [Why was my question closed as "Off Topic – Assistance in Writing or Debugging Existing Code?](https://softwareengineering.meta.stackexchange.com/a/7742)
