Fundamental Types
C/C++ support most of the fundamental data types directly.
The fundamental types are int, float, and char.
-
- int
- To store integer numbers.
Eg: int i = 12;
- short
- Shortest integer representable. This is guaranteed
to hold atleast the range -128 to 128.
Eg: short i;
- long
- Gives extra precision than short.
Eg: long i;
- unsigned
- Assumes integer is positive to enable storage of larger
numbers. Eg:
int i; // if i stores only the range -128 to 127
unsigned i; // allows i to store the range 0 to 255.
-
- float
- To store floating point numbers.
Eg: float i = 12.345;
- double
- Might give more (normally twice as much) precision than float.
Eg: double i;
-
- char
- To store a single character.
Eg: char ch = 'Z';
These types are further extended in the
derived types,
and by the use of
structures,
enumerated
data types, and the
typedef
statement.
Look at the example
from Hansen's answer book to see the differences between the data types.
( sizeof() is an operator to compare the storage sizes of types )
Exercises :
- Run the above example
from the answer book and find out the differences between the data types
in your machine under your compiler.
- What happens when you assign a floating point number to an integer ?
Please feel free to question or discuss
any part of this section. These questions and discussions are also
archived.
(C) 1994 naren
Distributed without any warranty under
GNU GPL
nan2@cortex.eecs.lehigh.edu
Last modified: Thu Feb 9 20:06:11 1995