Re:Teaching the Unfortunate Parts
by MauranKilom on Monday December 28, 2020 @08:28PM
(#25565587)
So then what should this code produce?
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Re:Teaching the Unfortunate Parts
by thaumasiotes on Tuesday December 29, 2020 @01:36AM
(#25567348)
So then what should this code produce?
i = -0
return arr[i]
That code would (assuming an integer value; the question is interesting without reference to the implementation of JavaScript) return arr[0], the first element. Don't think of arr[-1] as indexing the array with a negative number that might have been a positive number. Think of array access from the front, arr[ ], and array access from the back, arr[- ], as separate operations with separate syntax, each of which can accept only nonnegative numbers. arr[i] is of the first type, so you get the first element counted from the front.Actually, I think that might work in Javascript! All the numbers are IEE754 floating point numbers and there are separate values for positive and negative zero.
iirc using numeric literal values there's a coercion step—a console example:
let arr = new Array(10);
// 1e1 => 10
arr[1e1] = 1;
console.log(`arr[10] === 1 => ${arr[10] === 1}`)
console.log(`arr[1e1] === 1 => ${arr[1e1] === 1}`)
So -0 becomes 0: arr[0] = 2;
console.log(`arr[0] === 2 => ${arr[0] === 2}`);
console.log(`arr[-0] === 2 => ${arr[-0] === 2}`);
arr[-0] = 3;
console.log(`arr[0] === 3 => ${arr[0] === 3}`);
console.log(`arr[-0] === 3 => ${arr[-0] === 3}`);