programming-for-dummies

Using an Array 315
the array, which defines how many chunks of data (elements) that the array
can hold.
Bounds
The size of an array is defined by two numbers:
✦ The lower bound defines the number of the first array element.
✦ The upper bound defines the number of the last array element.
Default bounds
The default value of the lower bound depends on the programming language:
✦ Many programming languages, including the curly bracket language
family of C and Java, always define the lower bound of an array starting
with the number 0 (known as zero-based arrays).
✦ Other programming languages always define the lower bound of an
array starting with the number 1 (known as one-based arrays).
The following BASIC code actually creates a zero-based array that can hold
six elements, numbered 0 through 5, as shown in Figure 1-3:
Dim LotteryNumbers(5) as Integer
Book III
Chapter 1
Figure 1-3:
One-based
array
numbers
array
elements
differently
than zerobased
arrays.
Dim LotteryNumbers(5) as Integer
0 1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
A zero-based array starts
counting at 0.
A one-based array starts
counting at 1.
Structures
and Arrays
If the programming language created a one-based array, the array would
hold only five elements.
Zero-based arrays were made popular in the C language. As a result, any
language derived from the C language, such as C++, C#, Java, Python, and
Objective-C, will also use zero-based arrays. Because many programmers are
familiar with zero-based arrays, many other programming languages also use