In pretty much any language other than python you'd have to be careful for the case that i might become negative anyway. And in python you could just go:

In pretty much any language other than python you'd have to be careful for the case that i might become negative anyway. And in python you could just go: import itertools as it a = ''.join(it.islice(it.cycle("abc"),10)) Also you don't need 0 to form a ring. Modulo arithmetic forms a ring no matter which representatives you pick. Languages just tend to implement one that includes 0 because it's more convenient.