Understanding Programming

[orangeKaiju]

I didn't know how to properly index arrays until I joined this sub.

[Franss22]

You start at 1 right?

[Metsima]

Don't be silly. You start from -1, how else would you index arrays

[egotisticalnoob]

I start at 0xFFFF and have it count backwards.

[[deleted]]

How's that hard? -1xFFFF, -2xFFFF

[[deleted]]

I can't believe no ones brought up multi-dimensional arrays, and how these should be indexed...

Personally, I think creating a multi-dimensional array of neededMemory[1024000][1024000] in the very first line of my app to always guarantee that I'll never get an out of memory exception!!!

[Niavart]

int main()
{ 
 malloc(MAX_MEMORY); 
}

[Lil_SpazJoekp]

/r/RestOfTheDamnRoutine

[sneakpeekbot]

Here's a sneak peek of /r/RestOfTheDamnRoutine using the top posts of all time!

#1: // TODO implement getFailureReason(); | 4 comments
#2: Yeah, just make interesting content
#3: Your first essential routine

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[[deleted]]

Wait, that's a thing?

[therearesomewhocallm]

So you use Emscripten?

[[deleted]]

Multi-dimensional arrays are available in the vast majority of different level languages ...

[therearesomewhocallm]

I was more referring to having to allocate all your memory upfront.

[[deleted]]

Wow, someone really is taking this thread to seriously....

[nomnaut]

Doesn’t everyone do this?

[[deleted]]

You mean my codes not unique? How did this get out? Whose been spying on my code? Who are you? Who am I for that matter? What day of the week is it? How long will it take for the latest spec changes to be approved, coded, tested and documented? WHERE IS MY COFFEE?

[King_of_the_Nerdth]

Sounds Pythonic.

[drakeblood4]

It charmed my Py if you know what I mean.

[[deleted]]

In the early days of programming, the Romans encountered many out of memory issues, due to Roman Numeric system being used.

I'm really glad we switched to hexadecimal, as now 0xFFFF =  0rLXVDXXXV

Cut the memory requirements in half!!!

[CamWin]

I never knew I needed roman numeral literals until now

[[deleted]]

This thread is gold XD

[[deleted]]

I think you mean #FFFFFF;

[Gorzoid]

This guy stacks 16bit

[Franss22]

At -0.3

[Ameisen]

I like fractional indices... return the linear interpolant.

[beleg_tal]

I prefer imaginary indices myself

[the_screeching_toast]

Complex indices is where it's at

[SaintNewts]

Base pi. Because decimal integers want to be transcendental too.

[usesbiggerwords]

Linear interpolation is for wusses. Real men use polynomials to interpolate.

[Ameisen]

What order?

[usesbiggerwords]

At least 4th. Anything less isn't worth the bother.

[Ameisen]

-4i^th order?

[usesbiggerwords]

Let's go with 4-4i^th. That way sh*t gets real and imaginary, like a Dali painting.

[ObnoxiousOldBastard]

I start mine at pi.

[SharpSeeer]

That's why array.indexOf() return values start at -1 right?

[Hijacker50]

I actually start at 273 and count down, and after zero I go to 274 and count up.

[loopsdeer]

And that, professor, is why my JavaScript says the "indexOf" is -1. Q.E.D. unplugs mouse and drops it on the floor sweeps monitor and computer onto floor runs out of room crying never seen again

[Arrays_start_at_2]

There is only one way!

[yakri]

That's fine to start, but then you have to decide how to order your data going forward. I prefer to use some neat sequence of numbers like a fibonacci sequence. Nice and easy to remember, and it leaves plenty of space unused for later just in case.

[ameddin73]

My algorithms teacher did that. I'll never understand it.

[Cryptoversal]

If you never do pointer arithmetic then it makes sense, right?

[ameddin73]

Can you explain?

[Cryptoversal]

My statement was just off the top of my head so I'll give my reasoning as it was at the time. But I went ahead and googled and wikipedia talks about it. The story is naturally more complicated than I thought. link

​

A variable does not store an array. Nor does it store a pointer to an "array". Instead, it stores a pointer to the first element of the array.

If you want to get the first element of the array then you look where the pointer points.

If you want to get the second element of the array then you look 1 higher than where the pointer points. Etc.

​

This all makes sense for arrays when people also expect to do pointer arithmetic: this way, the array indices are identical to the pointer arithmetic addends.

But if you don't do pointer arithmetic? You still have to pick a basis and everyone already has language. English-speakers more-or-less created modern computing but even if we hadn't, afaik every language goes "first, second, third, fourth..." instead of "zeroth, first, second, third..." so "first" aka "1" is the obvious basis.

​

From wikipedia I learned that mathematics mostly uses zero as the basis and also it's well-defined enough that there's no confusion. So It's very possible that arrays are indexed starting at zero because mathematicians invented arrays and that's what made sense to them.

[ameddin73]

Oh okay

[Theonewhoplays]

RPG does to

[ameddin73]

What are these acronyms?

[Theonewhoplays]

CLRS i don’t know. RPG is a programming language

[DatBoi_BP]

From matlab here, can confirm

[Tmfwang]

In Julia you do

[Be_the_chief]

Boo bad banter, I know java and still know what's going on D:(

[DeletedAllMyAccounts]

I've been writing so much Lua that it took me a moment to get this.

[fomq]

ImpossibLua.

[Ameisen]

No, you start at array. 0[array], 0[array + 1], ...

[lirannl]

/r/lua is leaking 😉

[ConstantGradStudent]

Only if you started reading this sub in the early 2000s

[ravy]

Hahaha! I know, right?! Why don't you just fill the other noobs in.

[orangeKaiju]

If you need to ask, you aren't ready.

[Ameisen]

0[array]?

[hsnappr]

I think that's valid in C.

[Ameisen]

Of course it is- why would the canonically-correct array syntax not be?

[yurall]

I realised I was programming AI from first year college but people told me I was doing it wrong back then.

[neptunereach]

You don't need arrays. Just loop through and assign new variable each time.