what is the i ?

[Flash Gordon]

hey guys,

why do I see the "i" in actionscript a lot like stuff like
if ( i>0)
and such stuff. It seems to be standard for some reason. Does "i" have a meaning to it in general?

[Cota]

'i' doesnt really have any meaning other than some silly programmer came up with it

[tg]

its usally a variable to hold the value for an index.


i don't know if its silly tho, 'i' is alot easier to type the 'valueOfTheCurrentIndex'... now that would be silly (altho more discriptive).

[Flash Gordon]

what is meant by valueOfTheCurrentIndex?

like:
var i:Number = 0;
onEnterFrame=function() {
if (i < 10) {
i++;
}
}
type stuff

[cristip]

some coders use "count" and not "i".. others preffer "n" and so on.. you can use whatever you desire as long the job is done..

[burnedalive]

All tg meant was that as a variable name, 'valueOfTheCurrentIndex' is a lot more trouble to type out than 'i' or some other short variable name. But use whatever you are comfortable with. I tend to use 'i' because thats what I always used to see in my programming classes in college.


what is meant by valueOfTheCurrentIndex?

like:
var i:Number = 0;
onEnterFrame=function() {
if (i < 10) {
i++;
}
}
type stuff

[brendanww]

i stands for interate, meaning to repeat or do again. Many tutorials/examples use I (im not sure if many programmers actually use it in their site's actionscript) when showing loops. I is used not only in loop examples/tutorials for flash, but also in php, javascript, and just about every other programming language.

[nthpixel]

For some reason "i" was always used in my programming class. I never know why. I figured it was because programmers were to lazy to type in an entire word.

[Colin Campbell]

I use "i" as well, its a pretty convienent letter, and I mean, whens the last time "i" did anything bad to you?

In all seriousness, its just a convention I picked up while browsing these forums. Guess its just used by a lot of people.

[tg]

I figured it was because programmers were to lazy to type in an entire word.

i know i am.

[hangalot]

of course the bigger the variable name, the bigger the swf, since it actually compiles into the movie unlike most other languages

[tg]

of course the bigger the variable name, the bigger the swf, since it actually compiles into the movie unlike most other languages

so you would discourage using names like:

var thisIsTheVariableIUseToIncrementAValueInTheCurrent LoopSoICanKeepTrackOfWhereIAmInTheLoop =0;


??

hehheh.... i'm an ass.

[hangalot]

i work with other people so at times i come up with names like that. the ctrl-spacebar functionality in primalscript (like in visual studio) as saved me many a minute typing (and also looking for typo's)

[Gibberish]

I use i because then you can just go up the alphabet if you have loops inside loops, which just keeps things easy for me. Also if its a single character you don't confuse it with a real variable that is needed outside of the loop.

for(i=0; i < 3; i++){
for(j=0; j < 3; j++){
trace(i+"["+j+"]");
}
}

[Nicidemus]

i is just a variable. Any variable. You could use anything. It just keeps track of how many loops have been preformed and it is automatically updated.

so in a for-loop i could be:
for(i=1; i<myArray.length; i++){
trace("Actionscript is cool!")
}

OR the same loop but i has changed to ian:

var heather = 100
for(ian=1; ian<=heather; ian++){
trace("Ian is # "+ian)
}

Hee Hee