1.3 Data Types

In the last Artifice on Binary and ASCII, we talked about how Computers store all types of characters at Numbers, but if they are numbers then how does the Computer understand whether to recognize some particular bits as a number or as a character.

This is where Data Types come into play.

Every byte(8 bits) present in the Computer’s Memory is designated a data type, some of the major data types are:

int : Integers ranging from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647

char: 256 Characters represented in ASCII

float: Numbers with decimal places upto 6 decimal places

long long int: Integers ranging from -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807

double : Numbers with decimals upto 15 places

double double: Numbers with decimals upto 19 places

void: When some function is not to accept any input or give no output, Its said to be void (This is not exactly a data type!)

bool : Any Boolean expression which has a true/false value either zero or one is a bool data type or Boolean data type.

Now,

Have you wondered how are names stored in a Computer?

They are stored as strings or a list of characters.

Every string ends with a terminating null byte designated by ASCII 0 or \0;

In C++, These’s a separate data type and list of functions for strings, Firstly, You need to include the <string> library to store strings.

In C, Strings could be designated using char pointers, we’ll get into that later.

Exercise

Try implementing programs making use of the various data types in DevC++.