Is a variable named i unacceptable? [closed]

Question

As far as variable naming conventions go, should iterators be named i or something more semantic like count? If you don't use i, why not? If you feel that i is acceptable, are there cases of iteration where it shouldn't be used?

Answer 1

Depends on the context I suppose. If you where looping through a set of Objects in some collection then it should be fairly obvious from the context what you are doing.

for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
    // i is well known here to be the index
    objectCollection[i].SomeProperty = someValue;
}

However if it is not immediately clear from the context what it is you are doing, or if you are making modifications to the index you should use a variable name that is more indicative of the usage.

for(int currentRow = 0; currentRow < numRows; currentRow++)
{
    for(int currentCol = 0; currentCol < numCols; currentCol++)
    {
        someTable[currentRow][currentCol] = someValue;
    }
} 

Answer 2

"i" means "loop counter" to a programmer. There's nothing wrong with it.