cee0c888-b2d8-42e5-8bf5-413e94c98513
prompter
Why do most programming languages have 0 as the first index of arrays? What are the advantages of that? Why do some languages like Lua start their arrays at 1?
ffe67bfd-6b56-427c-8f31-839ad206bcb1
cee0c888-b2d8-42e5-8bf5-413e94c98513
assistant
Low-level programming languages are written with the machine's hardware in mind, and indexing from 0 is no exception. The C programming language uses 0-based array indexing, because the array index is measuring the difference in memory locations, so 0 would refer to the first index. Because C was so influential on the rest of the programming world, many other languages also started using 0-based array indexing. However, some higher-level languages such as Lua or MATLAB ignore this convention, most likely because it can be confusing for those new to programming.
10914e4f-4ddf-49f2-94cd-8675245482fa
ffe67bfd-6b56-427c-8f31-839ad206bcb1
prompter
Do you think it's likely that more new languages will start list indices at 1?