While writing some predicates for collection filtering I have stumbled over the choice of the right words for the relation of the subject and the predicate (English is a foreign language for me). What I ended up writing was “Subjects matching this predicate…”
This seems to be incorrect, since predicates are functions and not regular expressions. But saying “Subjects for which this predicate returns true…” sounds awkward to me as well..
So what would be the correct term?
I would use “Subjects satisfying this predicate”.
Matches implies a pattern, rather than a condition. And “for which this predicate returns true,” although the most accurate, sounds more technical than I think you intend.
Edit: Mike makes a good point that predicate is also very technical. Perhaps “Subjects satisfying this condition” is a better option.
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I think the terminology really depends on your intended audience.
If we’re talking about code comments and API documentation then I would say your suggestion would be very accurate and understandable.
"For which this predicate returns true."
If we’re writing end user documentation I would avoid the word predicate all together and stick with “filter” and “match”.
"Subjects matching your filter."
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