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I asked a question and got some answers. Some of them describes why my problem does not have a real solution. Do I need to select one of them as the accepted answer?

I'll sharpen the question: Does an answer that explains why my problem does not have a solution is eligible to be selected as the accepted answer?

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There is no requirement that one answer must be marked as accepted. It's not uncommon to never accept an answer, because no answers really answer you question.

At the same time, if, for example, I ask a question about how to do something and an answer is posted explaining that I cannot do it and explaining why - and I understand and agree with that argument, I would tend to accept that answer, because it provides me with the relevant information. Bonus points if the answer provides a reasonable different way of achieving what I am after.

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Does an answer that explains why my problem does not have a solution is eligible to be selected as the accepted answer?

I will give my $0.02 seeing all others have different opinion.

From what I understand accepted answer means "this answer helped me solve my problem". Now, if the answer proves beyond a doubt your problem is unsolvable then it's the same as solving the problem. Think I learned about those things in Math classes.

This leads me to advice you to go ahead and mark such answer as accepted.

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First of all accepting an answer is not necessary. It's totally depends on you whether to accept or not.

If any answer solves your problem you can accept it. But if there is no answer which solves your problem (as you said they just describes your problem but it didn't solve the problem and doesn't describe why there is no solution for it), you don't need to accept any answer. And no one will blame you to not accepting the answer. That's why we removed the accept rate.

Is an answer that explains why my problem does not have a solution is eligible to be selected as the accepted answer?

Well, if your problem doesn't have any solution (e.g. bug in the software/language etc.) and someone point outs this, you should accept that answer.

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    +1 for the last point
    – Habib
    May 8, 2013 at 7:15
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No, there is no rule which says that you have to "accept" any of the answers given to the question you asked.

You can always wait more time ( no limit ) to get a perfect answer.

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