this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
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How is arrays starting at 1 still a controversial take. Arrays should start at 1 and offsets at 0.
Arrays are address offsets.
Not in languages where you don't manually handle memory, such as PHP, SQL, Python... Higher-level languages using 0-indexed arrays are letting the abstraction leak.
So what's 0 do then? I'm okay with wacky indexes (I've used something with negative indexes for a end-index shorthand) but 0 has to mean something that's actually useful. Using the index as the offset into the array seems to be the most useful way to index them.
I'd say the index is actually an offset is a reasoning for explaining why it should start at 1. If index was an index, I'd just start at 1.
I don't think any one is better than the other, but history chose 0.
That you can choose it in VB is probably the worst option :D
I can't believe an objectively true claim gets downvoted.