Length property

This is probably a stupid question needing a simple answer:

I am looking at “length” property in the Adobe AS3.0 language ref as I do not understand it.

It says:

**An integer specifying the number of characters in the specified String object. **(I understand this)

Because all string indexes are zero-based, the index of the last character for any string x is x. length - 1. (I do not understand the “- 1”. I understand that all string indexes are zero-based but I cant put this together with the last character for any string being -1 or whatever it is saying.

Do you understand this and can you help me understand it?

Thanks in advance.