Iteration a signed integer and not an unsigned integer, why?

Question

i was just wondering if there is a reason for keeping the iteration variable/indicator of a loop a signed 32 bit integer.
it is never going to take a negative value.. then why signed; unsigned could have served the purpose
Message Edited by Ujjval Shah on 07-08-2009 09:21 AM
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Answer 1

Remember that array sizes are limited to I32 (the "size" input to initialize array is I32, the output of Array size is I32, etc), so running a FOR loop more than 2^21 times is not even possible (N is also I32).
While loops can of course run forever, so if you need to increment a counter more than 2^31 times, you can use a shift register with U64, for example. However, don't even try to autoindex an output tunnel of such a loop, you're almost guaranteed to run out of memory before you reach the limits of I32.
Using array indices as I32 has several advantages. For example sometimes you need an invalid index (Integers don't have NaN!), so having a negative number is very useful. For example if you use "search array" and no match is found, the output is -1.
I suspect in the very long run these things will change. In another decade, all OSs will be 64bit or more and RAM will be mesured in TB. LabVIEW will need to evolve too to keep up. 
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