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I'm trying to say "it counts the number of times a given value repeats sequentially" in a list, meaning it finds the maximum number of times a value occurs in a row in a list. I know there's a word for it, but I can't remember it.

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3 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

Repeats sequentially is the wrong expression, as OP suspects. The normal phrasing would be...

It counts the number of times a given value appears consecutively.

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That's the word, thanks. – Jonah Aug 23 '11 at 17:28
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... or "appears consecutively". – Karl Knechtel Aug 23 '11 at 22:15
@Karl Knechtel: It's a very fine (possibly non-existant) distinction, but I have the feeling I prefer appears in respect of multiple instances, and occurs if there's only one or a very small number. So thanks, and I'll edit to reflect that! :) – FumbleFingers Aug 23 '11 at 22:29
up vote 1 down vote

How about:   '(Occurs) one after another'?

… or, perhaps the word you're looking for is 'consecutively'?

EDIT: as FumbleFingers beat me to it, here's something more elaborate (perhaps not what you want):

"It shows the quantity a given value repeats itself consecutively".

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I think "repeats [itself] consecutively" is at least somewhat tautological, in that repetion is implicit in anything consecutive. – FumbleFingers Aug 23 '11 at 17:58
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The computerese term I would use is "recur."

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