"fencepost problem" meaning in All languages combined

See fencepost problem on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Audio: en-au-fencepost problem.ogg Forms: fencepost problems [plural]
Etymology: By analogy with fence-building. If one wants to say "lay a fencepost, then a length of fence, then repeat", then a special case must be made for the final fencepost. If one wants to say "lay a length of fence, then a fencepost, then repeat", then a special case must be made for the initial fencepost. Head templates: {{en-noun}} fencepost problem (plural fencepost problems)
  1. (programming) A problem dealing with how to treat the initial or boundary values of a discrete problem. Wikipedia link: Off-by-one error Related terms: off-by-one error Translations (Translations): aidanpylväsvirhe (Finnish), Zaunpfahlproblem [neuter] (German), problem z ustaleniem granic problemu [masculine] (Polish)

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "By analogy with fence-building. If one wants to say \"lay a fencepost, then a length of fence, then repeat\", then a special case must be made for the final fencepost. If one wants to say \"lay a length of fence, then a fencepost, then repeat\", then a special case must be made for the initial fencepost.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fencepost problems",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "fencepost problem (plural fencepost problems)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
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          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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          "name": "Programming",
          "orig": "en:Programming",
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        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A problem dealing with how to treat the initial or boundary values of a discrete problem."
      ],
      "id": "en-fencepost_problem-en-noun-Y2Knj417",
      "links": [
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        [
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        [
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        [
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        [
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(programming) A problem dealing with how to treat the initial or boundary values of a discrete problem."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "off-by-one error"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "programming",
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      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "aidanpylväsvirhe"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "Zaunpfahlproblem"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "problem z ustaleniem granic problemu"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Off-by-one error"
      ]
    }
  ],
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    {
      "audio": "en-au-fencepost problem.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/04/En-au-fencepost_problem.ogg/En-au-fencepost_problem.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/En-au-fencepost_problem.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "fencepost problem"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "By analogy with fence-building. If one wants to say \"lay a fencepost, then a length of fence, then repeat\", then a special case must be made for the final fencepost. If one wants to say \"lay a length of fence, then a fencepost, then repeat\", then a special case must be made for the initial fencepost.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fencepost problems",
      "tags": [
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      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
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  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "off-by-one error"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
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        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Polish translations",
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A problem dealing with how to treat the initial or boundary values of a discrete problem."
      ],
      "links": [
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        ],
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        [
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        ],
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(programming) A problem dealing with how to treat the initial or boundary values of a discrete problem."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "programming",
        "sciences"
      ],
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        "Off-by-one error"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-fencepost problem.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/04/En-au-fencepost_problem.ogg/En-au-fencepost_problem.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/En-au-fencepost_problem.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "aidanpylväsvirhe"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "Zaunpfahlproblem"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "problem z ustaleniem granic problemu"
    }
  ],
  "word": "fencepost problem"
}

Download raw JSONL data for fencepost problem meaning in All languages combined (2.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-20 using wiktextract (3dadd05 and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.