C TutorialLesson 8Free preview

C Data Types

This lesson is part of C · All levels

Summary

The data type determines the type of value a variable can store and the size of the memory it uses. C provides built-in types such as int (integer), float and double (decimal), char (one character), as well as short and long for variations in the width of integers. The right type selection is essential to save memory and not lose accuracy. The size of each type can vary between platforms, but generally int uses 4 bytes.

Key points

Int for integers, float/double for decimal numbers, char for one character
Double has higher precision than float
The unsigned type only keeps the nonnegative value so the positive range is larger.
The sizeof operator displays the size of a type or variable in bytes

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