4

A webpage allows its users to upload a limited number of images. As a developer who wants to store this constant value, I wonder which term is most fitting.

There's:

  • threshold, known from some applications that I use,

  • limit, a very common term, and

  • maximum, which I find suitable, because it implies that you allow any value below it.

Other suggestions are welcome as well.

Hellion
  • 18,753
  • 3
  • 49
  • 80
Maral
  • 43
  • 1
  • 4
  • 3
    It would be easier to analyze this question from an English perspective if you were wanting to put it in an English sentence (for example, The user has exceeded her image upload _________). When it's only being used as a variable name, the word really doesn't matter so much from a grammatical, syntactical, or definition perspective; that's more of a programming question than an English question. MaxNumberOfImages would work fine in your code, although it's not good English. You might want to rephrase this question. – J.R. Feb 18 '14 at 11:16
  • Since you’re talking about a computer application, consider “quota”. It’s ‘computerese’, but most computer users will understand it. – Scott - Слава Україні Feb 20 '14 at 00:53

2 Answers2

7

A "limit" could be in any direction, while a "maximum" is always the largest possible or allowable value. That is, a limit could be the farthest you are allowed to go left or right or down or in or out as well as up, while a maximum is always up.

A "threshold" is not a maximum but a point at which something changes. For example, your bank might say, "There is a monthly fee of $5 to maintain an account, but if your average balance reaches the THRESHOLD of $1000, then the fee is waived." The threshold is not the maximum amount you are allowed to have in the account, but the amount at which new rules apply.

So in this case, I would say the appropriate word is "maximum".

Jay
  • 65,313
  • 1
  • 69
  • 142
2

For this particular case, the images are countable, aren't they? So, the best fitting word, as you think, is maximum.

The maximum number of uploading images is [the number].

For example, for Picassa, Google defines the limits here.

Maulik V
  • 66,059
  • 109
  • 310
  • 456