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for(int i=0; i<size; i++)

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Weird and The Wonderful
csharpc++javaquestion
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  • Y YDaoust

    Don't they mean 'horizontal' and 'vertical' ?

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    gholamali Hosseini
    wrote on last edited by
    #25

    maybe but I don't think so. horizontal -> h not 'i' & vertical ->v not 'j' the 'i' and 'j' are symbols for horizontal and vertical vectors.

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    • G gholamali Hosseini

      maybe but I don't think so. horizontal -> h not 'i' & vertical ->v not 'j' the 'i' and 'j' are symbols for horizontal and vertical vectors.

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      YDaoust
      wrote on last edited by
      #26

      probably i -> row and j -> column then

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      • Y YDaoust

        probably i -> row and j -> column then

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        gholamali Hosseini
        wrote on last edited by
        #27

        :omg: Hmmmmm...

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        • B Brady Kelly

          But I shudder to think why someone would venture right across the keyboard for a '1' instead of an 'i'. Yes, dataset.Tables[1] will work, but why, oh the humanity, why, are you not using the table name?

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          Dan Neely
          wrote on last edited by
          #28

          Brady Kelly wrote:

          But I shudder to think why someone would venture right across the keyboard for a '1' instead of an 'i'.

          Bad habits from the type writer era. http://www.flickr.com/photos/textlad/3564672292/[^]

          Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt

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          • T tumbledDown2earth

            I am sure this was one of the hello-world codes for many of us ... But I wonder why the letter "i" .. I mean why on earth? With "a" the leading character why "i" ... After sometime I found out that Fortran language (which was/is historically used for scientific calculations) use "i" as a starting character for all integer type variables, and the quickest varible to write would be "i" Most authors and coders continued to use "i" even in C and then to C++ and then to C#, Java etc ... Is this an interpretation?

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            WPerkins
            wrote on last edited by
            #29

            I think you are right. If not otherwise defined FORTRAN would default to integer variables whose names started with "I" through "l" (ell) I believe. Not too sure about the ending letter as all *good* programmers defined their variables. After years of programming I still use "t" for temporary variables (like creating a value for the debugger to see) and "t.t" for file names for the same sort of thing - temporary names while developing. This comes from the old TRS80 system. Old habits die hard, eh?

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            • T tumbledDown2earth

              I am sure this was one of the hello-world codes for many of us ... But I wonder why the letter "i" .. I mean why on earth? With "a" the leading character why "i" ... After sometime I found out that Fortran language (which was/is historically used for scientific calculations) use "i" as a starting character for all integer type variables, and the quickest varible to write would be "i" Most authors and coders continued to use "i" even in C and then to C++ and then to C#, Java etc ... Is this an interpretation?

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              fredrick72
              wrote on last edited by
              #30

              I always use index and sometimes preppend it with the object or value i am indexing. It leads to a bit more verbose code but it is a hell of a lot easier to understand. Just my opinion.

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              • T tumbledDown2earth

                I am sure this was one of the hello-world codes for many of us ... But I wonder why the letter "i" .. I mean why on earth? With "a" the leading character why "i" ... After sometime I found out that Fortran language (which was/is historically used for scientific calculations) use "i" as a starting character for all integer type variables, and the quickest varible to write would be "i" Most authors and coders continued to use "i" even in C and then to C++ and then to C#, Java etc ... Is this an interpretation?

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                mc42
                wrote on last edited by
                #31

                Yes, it started in FORTRAN and leads to the following joke: God is real unless declared integer At least now you have the context so you can see the humor :)

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                • W WPerkins

                  I think you are right. If not otherwise defined FORTRAN would default to integer variables whose names started with "I" through "l" (ell) I believe. Not too sure about the ending letter as all *good* programmers defined their variables. After years of programming I still use "t" for temporary variables (like creating a value for the debugger to see) and "t.t" for file names for the same sort of thing - temporary names while developing. This comes from the old TRS80 system. Old habits die hard, eh?

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                  tumbledDown2earth
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #32

                  same thoughts

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                  • M Matthew Bache

                    If it wasn't for our coding standard, I would employ index, jndex... today. I like that idea.

                    Matt

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                    Rob Grainger
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #33

                    Why not just skip to "spa"

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                    • M mc42

                      Yes, it started in FORTRAN and leads to the following joke: God is real unless declared integer At least now you have the context so you can see the humor :)

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                      Rob Grainger
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #34

                      Sorry, I still don't see the humour! (Sound of tumbleweed blowing)

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                      • T tumbledDown2earth

                        I am sure this was one of the hello-world codes for many of us ... But I wonder why the letter "i" .. I mean why on earth? With "a" the leading character why "i" ... After sometime I found out that Fortran language (which was/is historically used for scientific calculations) use "i" as a starting character for all integer type variables, and the quickest varible to write would be "i" Most authors and coders continued to use "i" even in C and then to C++ and then to C#, Java etc ... Is this an interpretation?

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                        Michael A Cochran
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #35

                        In my mind, it was because of FORTRAN. Back in the day, we didn't have all that many languages to choose from and most of us wrote in 360 assembler, FORTRAN, or COBOL. As others have said, while FORTRAN did have typing, variables starting with i-n were defaulted to integers so we just used i - followed by j, k, l in nested loops - for simplicity. We also used foo, foobar, and jane for "temp" variables. foo and foobar were common for IBM programmers and jane was common in DEC code.

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                        • H H Brydon

                          Look at any mathematics text that is older than computers. You will find i, j, k, m, n rampant as indexes for just about any formula you can find. Also, x, y, z are common variables and A, B, C are commonly used as constants.

                          -- Harvey

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                          englebart
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #36

                          I second the math heritage. Remember the Capital Sigma sum sign like you see in Excel now? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summation#Capital-sigma_notation[^] PI is used for products. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplication#Capital_Pi_notation[^]

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                          • T tumbledDown2earth

                            I am sure this was one of the hello-world codes for many of us ... But I wonder why the letter "i" .. I mean why on earth? With "a" the leading character why "i" ... After sometime I found out that Fortran language (which was/is historically used for scientific calculations) use "i" as a starting character for all integer type variables, and the quickest varible to write would be "i" Most authors and coders continued to use "i" even in C and then to C++ and then to C#, Java etc ... Is this an interpretation?

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                            Cj Welborn
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #37

                            I've never used fortran, I always thought of 'i' as an unnamed integer. A throw-away variable.

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                            • T tumbledDown2earth

                              I am sure this was one of the hello-world codes for many of us ... But I wonder why the letter "i" .. I mean why on earth? With "a" the leading character why "i" ... After sometime I found out that Fortran language (which was/is historically used for scientific calculations) use "i" as a starting character for all integer type variables, and the quickest varible to write would be "i" Most authors and coders continued to use "i" even in C and then to C++ and then to C#, Java etc ... Is this an interpretation?

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                              Antonino Porcino
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #38

                              now that you made me think of it, I realized of my habit of using "t" instead of "i" as my favorite looping variable. It's because I learned of FOR loops back in 1984 when typing BASIC programs on my Commodore VIC20. The user manual had several sound-effects example listings, mostly composed of a FOR T=something statement, where T stayed (I guess) for time. I typed many of them and eventually got the habit of the "t" variable. Effects were something like this:

                              10 REM LUNAR LANDING EFFECT
                              15 POKE 36878,15
                              20 FOR T=200 TO 120 STEP -1
                              30 POKE 36876,T
                              40 FOR I=1 TO 100:NEXT I
                              50 NEXT T

                              (for the curious ones, 368678 was for volume "up" and 36876 for playing tone).

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                              • P PIEBALDconsult

                                But "loop" is a verb. :~

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                                R Giskard Reventlov
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #39

                                No, it's a word (noun and verb) that perfectly describes the intention of the code. I try to use as much 'real' English rather than silly tokens in code: makes the intention clear and the code eminently more readable.

                                "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

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                                • G greldak

                                  There were but they were implicit. Any variable name beginning with a letter between (and including) the first two letters of INteger was an integer, any other variable was a real.

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                                  dg6yhw11
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #40

                                  Fascinating! I know and still use that convention but had no idea what that particular set of letters was chosen until now. Thanks. Murray

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                                  • W WPerkins

                                    I think you are right. If not otherwise defined FORTRAN would default to integer variables whose names started with "I" through "l" (ell) I believe. Not too sure about the ending letter as all *good* programmers defined their variables. After years of programming I still use "t" for temporary variables (like creating a value for the debugger to see) and "t.t" for file names for the same sort of thing - temporary names while developing. This comes from the old TRS80 system. Old habits die hard, eh?

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                                    H Brydon
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #41

                                    WPerkins wrote:

                                    If not otherwise defined FORTRAN would default to integer variables whose names started with "I" through "l" (ell) I believe...

                                    Right, and this spawned the expression "God is real (unless declared integer)".

                                    -- Harvey

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                                    • T tumbledDown2earth

                                      I am sure this was one of the hello-world codes for many of us ... But I wonder why the letter "i" .. I mean why on earth? With "a" the leading character why "i" ... After sometime I found out that Fortran language (which was/is historically used for scientific calculations) use "i" as a starting character for all integer type variables, and the quickest varible to write would be "i" Most authors and coders continued to use "i" even in C and then to C++ and then to C#, Java etc ... Is this an interpretation?

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                                      RafagaX
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #42

                                      I use i because I was taught so in school, also every example in any book use i (j, k, etc.) as loop variables so I assume it seems natural to me. By the way I always thought i stood for index.

                                      CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...

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                                      • H H Brydon

                                        WPerkins wrote:

                                        If not otherwise defined FORTRAN would default to integer variables whose names started with "I" through "l" (ell) I believe...

                                        Right, and this spawned the expression "God is real (unless declared integer)".

                                        -- Harvey

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                                        W Offline
                                        WPerkins
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #43

                                        I just asked Him, he said "Don't Fret It, Dude". Amazing how much hold over there is. IBM PCs in the mid 1980s had screens that were 25 rows by 80 columns... same dim as punch cards. I wonder how much hold over we've gotten from APL and ADA - even those of us who never wrote any APL or ADA. Topic for another thread perhaps. I am currently working on a big project in Delphi 7 - circa 2005 code. I thought Pascal had died about the same time as Milli Vanilli... guess not. Disco rocks, by the way.

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                                        • R R Giskard Reventlov

                                          No, it's a word (noun and verb) that perfectly describes the intention of the code. I try to use as much 'real' English rather than silly tokens in code: makes the intention clear and the code eminently more readable.

                                          "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

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                                          S Offline
                                          Sentenryu
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #44

                                          silly tokens does depend on the reader. for me, it's more clear what you mean if you use "i" than if you use "loop", but that's because i'm used to the former.

                                          I'm brazilian and english (well, human languages in general) aren't my best skill, so, sorry by my english. (if you want we can speak in C# or VB.Net =p) "Given the chance I'd rather work smart than work hard." - PHS241 "'Sophisticated platform' typically means 'I have no idea how it works.'"

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