While writing a rhetorical question I ran into a case where it seemed natural to start a sentence with “I.e”:
How do we handle the case when the list is empty? I.e., if the filter matched no entries?
Is that OK in this case? In any case?
Edit: Thanks, everyone. It seems the consensus is that it’s legal but not attractive. I like the alternatives presented in the accepted answer and comments. For my part, I will probably be avoiding the construct in the future.
Answer
Combo of my and @FumbleFingers’ comments, which I believe would constitute an answer:
While one couldn’t empirically insist that a sentence cannot begin with i.e., doing so would unnecessarily raise some eyebrows. Might I suggest a couple of alternatives?
- How do we handle the case when the list is empty (i.e. the filter matched no entries)?
- How do we handle the case when the list is empty, i.e. the filter matched no entries?
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : olooney , Answer Author : snumpy
