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Should I post an answer to my own question if I obtain the answer through the hints in the comments section after a reasonable amount of discussion, or should I leave it to future readers to make their way through the comments?

Edit:There is a new link attached classifying this as a duplicate talks about the answer already being posted, whereas I'm talking of a situation where no answer is posted and the answer is arrived at in the comments.

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    you can self answer.. you can credit the user in your answer for help given. If the entire answer is mostly the comment, you can post as community wiki – Suraj Rao Feb 18 '18 at 13:02
  • if the answer was provided in a comment, and you can tell that the commentor didn't post it as answer, simply because he wasn't sure it will solve the problem, in that case you should reply to him saying that it fixed your issue, and he can therefore post it as an answer. If you see that he's not planning to post it, then go ahead and post it yourself – aBochur Feb 18 '18 at 15:08
  • This is not a duplicate at all, as this one deals with having an answer in the comments, and I believe that in such a case the answers in the attached duplicate, are not relevant here – aBochur Feb 18 '18 at 15:15
  • @ABochur Apparently the OP themselves accepted that the duplicates answers their question, so why bother? – πάντα ῥεῖ Feb 18 '18 at 17:42
  • @πάνταῥεῖ oh I didn't know that. How do I tell if the OP was the one to accept? – aBochur Feb 18 '18 at 18:46
  • @ABochur If a duplicate is marked and you see the Community appearing as close voter, it's very likely it was the OP who accepted. – πάντα ῥεῖ Feb 18 '18 at 18:53
  • @πάνταῥεῖ thanks for the info. I guess I'm left wondering how the duplicate answers the OP's question, as it has little to do with it. – aBochur Feb 18 '18 at 19:07
  • I closed it by mistake. Also, I thought that if I didn't accept that it was a duplicate my question will be taken down. I'm new to this site. – 3.14159 Feb 19 '18 at 7:39
  • Is there any way to undo my mistake? – 3.14159 Feb 19 '18 at 7:40
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    You should see a disclaimer under your question saying that if you feel that it's not a duplicate, you should edit the question to show how it's not one. – aBochur Feb 19 '18 at 18:47
  • I would say you should also edit the title to make it more clear that you're talking about a case where a comment was left with the answer. – aBochur Feb 19 '18 at 18:48
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Yes you can self answer but...

Tell the person who commented that that is correct and if they want to put it in an answer they can/should. If they don't respond or just don't answer then I would just self answer and mention that the answer came the from the commenter.

CW should only be used if you feel that you didn't write the answer but that the person who commented really did and you are just putting it in the answer form.

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    Can you break this into paragraphs and punctuate it? – user311528 Feb 20 '18 at 19:30
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    Since this comment covers 99.99% of what I was going to post - I'd add "Hey @poster - your comment was awesome and helped me solve my issue. If you could expand this into a full answer, I can select as the current one" is what I'd do. Unless I hate the guy just a little - then I'd go " As per foo's comment". Once or twice though people do utterly epic stuff like post images in comments and are cool with me yonking them. Credit is always nice and we like nice – Journeyman Geek♦ Feb 21 '18 at 3:49

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