Question

I mean

for (int i=1; i<7; i++) 

is much more readable when it is purely for the number of iterations that

for (int i=0; i<6; i++)

but somewhat the other approach has become an standard.

What do you think? It´s a bad practice or discouraged?

Answer 1

I think it’s simply because arrays are almost always 0-based, that when designers create other non-array objects that have collections, they have a tendency to make them 0-based as well. 0-based is just a standard, so sticking to it is just consistency and ease of use for maintainers.

Also, to me,

for(int i = 0; i < 6; i++) {

is more readable because I know that when 1 loop has completed, the count (i) will be one. With 1-based, after the first loop, the count is i = 2. This throws me off a bit.