But software engineers aren’t the only ones who program these days. It’s true that many popular languages used by developers are 0-based, but the most popular l

But software engineers aren’t the only ones who program these days. It’s true that many popular languages used by developers are 0-based, but the most popular language, Excel, is 1-based. Non devs seem to prefer 1-based indexing in my experience. As a teacher of Java and C++ to new programmers, the 0 based nature of those languages is always a sticking point; it causes novice programmers to write incorrect code, which frustrates them and leaves them with the perception that programming is filled with arbitrary rules that are only there to confuse people. And they’re not so wrong, seeing as that even programmers here can argue endlessly about 1 vs 0 indexing with no definitive answer.