descriptionfor

Descriptionfor is a term used in software development to denote a function, method, or utility that returns a textual description for a given object or value. It is not a formal standard term, but it appears in documentation and code examples as a reusable concept for generating human readable summaries.

Origins and naming: In most languages the function name would follow language-specific conventions such as descriptionFor (camelCase in JavaScript and Java), description_for (snake_case in Python), or DescriptionFor (PascalCase in C#). The concatenated form descriptionfor is less common and usually results from a specific coding style or a naming example.

Common use cases: The function can be used to populate UI elements like tooltips, item lists, or accessibility properties where a concise description improves understandability. It can also support search indexing or content summarization by providing a stable textual representation of an object.

Implementation notes: A descriptionFor implementation typically accepts an object or value and returns a string. It may support localization by taking a language parameter and may handle nulls gracefully. Performance and caching considerations arise if descriptions are computed frequently.

Example: For a product object with fields name 'Widget', color 'red', and specs '16GB RAM', a descriptionFor(product) might return 'Red Widget with 16GB RAM'.

Variations and related terms: Similar patterns include describe, getDescription, or toString in many languages. In accessibility contexts, the generated text may be used as an aria-label or description.

See also: toString, __repr__, describe, getDescription, localization.