Editing Off-by-one error (section)

{{Short description|Logical error that can often be found in programming}}
{{Redirect|OBOB|the book trivia competition|Oregon Battle of the Books}}
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An '''off-by-one error''' or '''off-by-one bug''' (known by acronyms '''OBOE''', '''OBO''', '''OB1''' and '''OBOB''') is a [[logic error]] that involves a number that differs from its intended value by 1. An off-by-one error can sometimes appear in a [[mathematics|mathematical]] context. It often occurs in [[computer programming]] when a [[control flow#Loops|loop]] iterates one time too many or too few, usually caused by the use of non-strict inequality (≤) as the terminating condition where strict inequality (<) should have been used, or vice versa. Off-by-one errors also stem from confusion over [[zero-based numbering]].