Learning to Program in C++

Index Variables

There's not much we can do about that now, so let's get back to our discussion of the revised pumpkin-weighing program. The last two lines in the variable definition phase define two variables, called i and k, which have been traditional names for index variables (i.e., variables used to hold indexes) since at least the invention of FORTRAN in the 1950s. The inventors of FORTRAN used a fairly simple method of determining the type of a variable: if it began with one of the letters I-N, it was an integer. Otherwise, it was a floating-point variable (i.e., one that can hold values that contain a fractional part, such as 3.876). This rule was later changed so that the user could specify the type of the variable regardless of its ...