incremented

Incremented is the past participle of increment, used to describe a quantity that has been increased by a fixed amount, most commonly by one. In mathematics and measurement, an increment refers to a small positive change in a variable or a discrete step in a sequence. When something is incremented, its value moves to a higher level.

In computing, incrementing a value typically means adding a certain amount to a variable. The most common case is incrementing by one, which is used to advance counters, loop indices, or sequence numbers. Many programming languages provide an increment operation or syntax, such as pre-increment and post-increment forms. In C-like languages, for example, x++ and ++x both increase x by one but differ in when the new value is observed. Other languages implement increments via explicit arithmetic, such as x = x + 1 or x += 1.

Practical considerations include overflow and underflow on fixed-width integers, where an increment can wrap around or raise an error, depending on the language or environment. In languages with arbitrary-precision integers, increments do not overflow. In concurrent or parallel contexts, increment operations may require atomicity to prevent race conditions. In data processing and databases, increments are common in formulas, updates, or sequences of records, and may use unit or non-unit deltas.

Etymology and usage: incremented derives from increment, which itself comes from Latin incrementum, meaning growth or increase. The term appears across mathematics, computer science, and data management to describe a rise in a value between states, observations, or steps.