Please explain my confused me like I’m 5 (0r 4 or 6).

  • @lyth
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    142 months ago

    Years are ordinal numbers, the kind of number that tells you which place you finished in a race, and as such cannot have zeroes or negatives. You’re living in the 2,024th year since the instant that began the Common Era. “0th” and “-1st” are not valid expressions for years for the same reason that you can’t place 0th in the Olympics

    • atro_city
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      fedilink
      132 months ago

      Programmer clutching their keyboards screaming “Arrays start at 0!”

      • ShaunaTheDead
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        fedilink
        22 months ago

        Ordinals are largely used for counting and when you’re counting you kind of do start a zero, most people just don’t say it. When you count 1… 2… 3… it would work just as well to start 0… 1… 2… 3… So programmers can rest easy.