> No, it mostly affects execution time. That's what I was thinking, too, but most of the time (even if the index is not static) the -1 can be eliminated by jus

> No, it mostly affects execution time. That's what I was thinking, too, but most of the time (even if the index is not static) the -1 can be eliminated by just modifying the address at which the array is assumed to start. That is, arr[x] compiles into an access at address (arr - 1) + x Since the address of arr is statically known, arr - 1 is, too, and the address of "one before the first element" will be what's written as the base for the memory access.