Array index start with zero?

[Ritesh raushan]

Why array index start with zero in c,cpp,java but in cobol,fortron start with index 1.....please help me this my interview question and i did'nt get select..

[Komal Arora]

Hey,

Go through this link. It's interesting and will clear your doubt:

Why array index starts from zero

[Henry Wong]

Ritesh raushan wrote:Why array index start with zero in c,cpp,java but in cobol,fortron start with index 1.....please help me this my interview question and i did'nt get select..

Quite frankly. I would have challenged back -- as the answer to why, for all those languages, can only lowest common denominator to "because that is how it is designed". Even the article presented, which I don't completely agree with, doesn't explain why fortran starts with one.

And of course, a plug for one of my favorite languages, Pascal -- in that language, you specify the range, so you can have it start with zero, one, or anything, that matches your algorithm.

Henry

[Paul Clapham]

That's a nasty piece of question-begging by Dijkstra, if that article is to be believed.

[Steve Fahlbusch]

Sorry Henry - at least to me pascal sucks - any language that by design exits out with any error is just plain stupid to me.

Now why FORTRAN and COBOL and even Algol had 1 as the starting infix was that they were created for math/ business folks.

PL/1was the first language that had both variable I dices and no reserved words.

[Winston Gutkowski]

Steve Fahlbusch wrote:PL/1was the first language that had both variable I dices and no reserved words.

And the verify() method - sadly forgotten now it seems. Wonderful function.

Winston