7

I have asked a question and there are there was one answer that mostly solved the original problem. In the comments to the answer, I asked how one would fix the remaining problem. It was answered but in a different answer. Both are very helpful and together they accomplish exactly what I wanted to when asking the question.

I would like to make it so that the question is answered (it will help many researchers writing papers in my field), but I think most would like the complete answer rather than just parts. As this was my first question, what is the ``correct" course of action in the community?

6

Don't worry too much. Just accept whichever answer gives you more of what you were looking for, or the one that took the longest to answer, or the fastest answer, or whatever—you could even suggest that someone write an amalgamation of the two answers and accept that instead.

6

Will wrote:

you could even suggest that someone write an amalgamation of the two answers and accept that instead.

In fact, I would suggest that you, the questioner, do this. If you really feel that accepting one answer would do a disservice to the other, then you can write the amalgamation. You should ensure that the attribution is clear and, briefly, say why you're writing the amalgamation. Then make it community wiki and accept it (there may be a time limit on when you can accept it - so you may have to wait a day or so). This doesn't give anyone the 15 rep for having an answer accepted, but anyone who sees your answer is likely to then go and vote for the other two (indeed, you can say, "If you felt like voting for this question or this answer, please also vote for the two answers that this is the amalgamation of) so it all balances out.

4

I generally accept the one that I consider the most useful answer for future readers interested in the question to read first.

Some people on SO like to write postscripts to their questions in situations like these, explaining what they got out of the answers, and maybe explaining their choice of accepted answer.

2

Ask one or both who answered to edit in the other answer so you can accept a complete answer.

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