Return to Answer

The question would be much clearer if you start with some context. As-is, all we have is some invented data that you think covers the range of conditions in your data. To readers, it's just a random collection of nonsense terms that could be placeholders for anything. It's like a guessing game where people have to keep asking for clues until the problem has been fully defined (and there's no basis to know when it is). If you describe what your data actually represent and what it comes from, that puts some boundaries on what it could contain, and what a solution needs to handle.

An answer doesn't necessarily have a relationship to whether a question is clear. It's common for a question to be ambiguous, various people will answer based on different interpretations of the question, and one of the answers will address what the OP intended. That answer gets accepted. The question is still unclear, but the answer helps shed light on what the OP meant. Based on the answer and acceptance, someone can often improve the question to clarify it.

An answer doesn't necessarily have a relationship to whether a question is clear. It's common for a question to be ambiguous, various people will answer based on different interpretations, and one of the answers will address what the OP intended. That answer gets accepted. The question is still unclear, but the answer helps shed light on what the OP meant. Based on the answer and acceptance, someone can often improve the question to clarify it.

But that can also work in the other direction. If an accepted answer doesn't appear to others to be a solution, it makes the question unclear, because it implies that the question means something other than what it says.

No, you don't need to prove an answer works. You are free to select any answer, even gibberish, if you think it helps or solves your problem. Acceptance of an answer is totally at your discretion.

No, you don't need to prove an answer works. You are free to select any answer, even gibberish, if you think it helps or solves your problem. Acceptance of an answer is totally at your discretion, and you don't need to justify your decision.