rowstart

Rowstart is a term used in computing to denote the starting index of rows within a two-dimensional data structure or display. It designates where to begin reading, processing, or rendering rows in a dataset, table, or grid. The exact meaning can vary by context: in many programming languages, row indices are zero-based, making the first row at index 0; in others, especially user-facing interfaces, indices may be one-based. Rowstart is commonly used in operations that involve partial data, such as pagination, streaming, or batch processing.

In practice, rowstart is often paired with other parameters like rowcount, rowend, or offset. For example, in database queries, you might skip a number of rows using an offset equal to rowstart and then limit the number of rows returned. In programming languages, code may iterate over rows starting from rowstart, for instance for i from rowstart to end. In data analysis libraries, functions may accept a slice from rowstart onward (for example, selecting data from rowstart to the end) to operate on a subset.

Potential pitfalls include off-by-one errors and inconsistent indexing conventions between systems; some tools use inclusive ranges while others use exclusive ones. Documentation and test cases should clarify whether rowstart is inclusive and whether indexing is zero-based.

Related concepts include rowend, rowcount, offset, limit, pagination, and ranges in two-dimensional data.