I dunno why, but I have always used x, y, z for my generic for-loop variables.

I started using the first letter of the thing I am iterating over. This is particularly helpful with nested loops so I can easily remember which index variable corresponds to which thing.

When my brain doesn’t work I’ll resort to naming them the single of the plural. Like keys turns into key when i don’t wanna call it “objkey” or “outrageouslylongnamethatmayormaynotbeafittongwordtodescribeakey”

I'm honestly prefer short but (usually) complete words. Somewhere along the line I realized that being explicit really helps when you need to change it later.

I thought it come from mathematical sequences, but actually it doesn't. My best bet is that i is the shorthand for index

chuckles in Python

Well. I guess I'm then a some kind of heretic then. 🤷

don't mind i but personally always use index or x, y, z for games

WTF, I have never used nor seen "j."

I don't usually have to name these variables these days though. Pretty much everything I use has foreach or some functional programming type stuff.

And like that, the off-by-one mistakes disappear.