## Invitation to Computer Science 8th Edition

Published by Cengage Learning

# Chapter 2 - 2.4 - Conclusion - Practice Problems - Page 85: 5

#### Answer

If we had incorrectly initialized $i$ to $0$ rather than $1$, then the algorithm would halt with a fatal error on Line $8$. In that line, we reference the variable $P_{i}$. If $i$ is $0$, this would be $P_{0}$, but there is no such value, as the pattern begins with the element $P_{1}$. This shows how important it is to be very careful about not only the “big issues” but the little details as well. Even a very tiny initialization error can cause an entire algorithm to fail.

#### Work Step by Step

If we had incorrectly initialized $i$ to $0$ rather than $1$, then the algorithm would halt with a fatal error on Line $8$. In that line, we reference the variable $P_{i}$. If $i$ is $0$, this would be $P_{0}$, but there is no such value, as the pattern begins with the element $P_{1}$. This shows how important it is to be very careful about not only the “big issues” but the little details as well. Even a very tiny initialization error can cause an entire algorithm to fail.

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