The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
off-by-one error
n.
[common] Exceedingly common error induced in many ways, such as by starting
at 0 when you should have started at 1 or vice-versa, or by writing < N
instead of <= N or vice-versa. Also applied to giving something to the
person next to the one who should have gotten it. Often confounded with
fencepost error, which is properly a particular subtype of it.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
off-by-one error
(Or "Obi-Wan error") An exceedingly common error
induced in many ways, such as by starting at zero when you
should have started at one or vice-versa, or by writing "< N"
instead of "<= N" or vice-versa. Often confounded with
fencepost error, which is properly a particular subtype of
it.
The term zeroth corrects the linguistic off-by-one error of,
e.g., referring to the "1st" element of an array whose indexes
start from zero.
[Jargon File]
(1998-09-21)