this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2024
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Please explain my confused me like I'm 5 (0r 4 or 6).

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[โ€“] lyth@sh.itjust.works 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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

[โ€“] atro_city@fedia.io 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Programmer clutching their keyboards screaming "Arrays start at 0!"

[โ€“] ShaunaTheDead@fedia.io 2 points 6 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.