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I am writing comments to my algorithm and I used this sentence to describe one variable. But I am not entirely sure if it makes sense and if I used commas right.

id of node, for which, program is currently creating blocks

It should mean that "program is currently creating blocks for node with id" (but id has to be a subject)

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  • For better understanding, is this sentence correct?: name of girl, for which, I am cooking a dinner, is Sarah
    – user42185
    Commented Apr 10, 2013 at 13:10
  • 5
    Skip both commas and it's OK. Commented Apr 10, 2013 at 15:59

2 Answers 2

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As John Lawler indicated, you have a surplus of commas in your examples (which are noun phrases, not clauses or sentences).

Using “for which” as in those examples leads to clumsy sentences. There is no grammatical requirement to write “the node for which the program is Xing” when what you mean is “the node the program is Xing for”. Anyhow, if required to keep the subject as is, I'd rewrite as follows:

... the ID of the node the program's creating blocks for ...
... the name of the girl I'm cooking dinner for is Sarah ...

However, if you are writing a document, don't introduce artificial constraints that lead to clumsy sentences or phrases. (Your examples and the above rewrites are indeed clumsy.) Instead, introduce suitable terminology in advance. For example, suppose your examples are elements of a list, and all the other items start a certain way. In advance define “developing node” as a reference to the node the program is currently creating blocks for, and subsequently write “the ID of the developing node”.

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If "id" is your subject as I think it is... AND "of node" is a prepositional (adjective) phrase answering the would-be question:

Q. Which id is it? The "node" Id.

Then the rest of the sentence can be written this way because it is "further" describing the Id of node using another adjective phrase:

"The id of node, for which the program is currently creating blocks."

Adding "the" is needed for clarity & is clearer.

This is to convey your idea of:

You: It's the id.

Q: Which id?

A: The id of node?

Q. What id of node? there are two or more.

A: The one [id of node] that the program is currently creating blocks for.

If this is your idea, then that is the best & most clear way I would write it. Again I would make it read:

"The id of node, for which the program is currently creating blocks.

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