Skip to main content

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

16
  • 57
    Reason #3: it looks like a typo. Seriously. Commented Nov 18, 2024 at 12:02
  • 23
    FWIW I do suspect your reason #2 is just your personal perception, and is not widely shared enough to make it an important reason to avoid using "iff". It's no more elitist than math itself is elitist. Commented Nov 18, 2024 at 17:28
  • 6
    @DocBrown I recall reading some anecdote where the author had asked their significant other to review a paper they wrote, and the SO said something like "it all looked good except for some minor typos." And, you guessed it, they had 'fixed' all the 'iff' typos. Commented Nov 18, 2024 at 22:14
  • 14
    Reason #4: iff is assumed for documentation. "The function returns True if foo is larger than bar" → everyone assumes it returns False in any other conditions. Commented Nov 18, 2024 at 22:47
  • 8
    Reason #5, I see no functional difference between "if and only if" and just "only if". The former is the kind of fluff I would expect in a college paper of someone trying to meet a word count. Commented Nov 19, 2024 at 6:53