Why do arrays start at 0?

Do you guy know why arrays are indexed at zero? So what’s actually happening under the hood here, let takes this example:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int test[3] = {1,2,3};
}

so if I want to get a second element here of test, I should write test[2]; right?

What’s actually happening here is this test[2]; converts the the address of test plus size of an int times two

test[2]; // &test + sizeof(int)*2 

And because the first element lives at the zeroth location (its the zeroth offset), that why you could do like this:

2[test] // that is legal C hehe
printf("%d\n", 2[test]);

that’s taking the address two and then offseting by test.

C is fun…