> A solution to the problem is to distinguish between the ordinal numbers > (first, > second, and so on) and cardinal numbers (zero, one, and so on). The first > ordinal number is "first", and the first cardinal number is "zero". Cardinal > number are for indexing, not for counting. Thanks. Bo.
I like that very much, although I read different things in https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ordinal_number "A natural number (which, in this context, includes the number 0) can be used for two purposes: to describe the size of a set, or to describe the position of an element in a sequence." (...) " Whereas the notion of cardinal number is associated with a set with no particular structure on it, the ordinals are intimately linked with the special kind of sets that are called well-ordered (...) " (...) " Ordinals may be used to label the elements of any given well-ordered set (the smallest element being labelled 0, the one after that 1, the next one 2, "and so on") and to measure the "length" of the whole set by the least ordinal that is not a label for an element of the set." See also https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Cardinal_number . R.E. Boss ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
