Fundamental C++ Data Types

Hello friends so in this articles we will be talking about Fundamental C++ Data Types, as we know while doing programming in any programming language, we use different variables to store all kind of information. and these variables are nothing more than reserved memory location to store values for that variable. So if we put that in simple words that mean that whenever we create or define a variable in our code

So if we put that in simple words that mean that whenever we create or define a variable in our code we are simply reserving some space in memory for that variable.
So before we take a look at what are data types used in C++ we need to know what is Data Type.

What is Data Type:-

Data Types in any programming language is used to specify what kind of data or what type of value a variable has and what type of mathematical, logical or relational operations can be applied to it without causing any problem in the program, for example, string is used to store text and integer is used to store numbers here is the table for different types:-

Data Type	Used for	Example
String	Alphanumeric characters	hello world, Alice, Bob123
Integer	Whole numbers	7, 12, 999
Float (floating point)	Number with a decimal point	3.15, 9.06, 00.13
Character	Encoding text numerically	97 (in ASCII, 97 is a lower case ‘a’)
Boolean	Representing logical values	TRUE, FALSE

Primitive Built-in Data Types:-

C++ comes with built-in data types and it also allows the user to define their own data types. Here is the table of Data types in C++ :-

Type	Keyword
Boolean	bool
Character	char
Integer	int
Floating point	float
Double floating point	double
Valueless	void
Wide character	wchar_t

Many of the above data types can be modify using these modifiers:-

• signed
• unsigned
• short
• long

Variable Types and Memory Used:-

This table shows the variable types and how much memory they take to store the value in memory, and the maximum and minimum values that can be stored in these type of variables.

Character Data Types

Data Type (Keywords)	Description	Size	Typical Range
char	Any single character. It may include a letter, a digit, a punctuation mark, or a space.	1 byte	-128 to 127 or 0 to 255
signed char	Signed character.	1 byte	-128 to 127
unsigned char	Unsigned character.	1 byte	0 to 255
wchar_t	Wide character.	2 or 4 bytes	1 wide character

Integer Data Types

Data Type (Keywords)	Description	Size	Typical Range
int	Integer.	4 bytes	-2147483648 to 2147483647
signed int	Signed integer. Values may be negative, positive, or zero.	4 bytes	-2147483648 to 2147483647
unsigned int	Unsigned integer. Values are always positive or zero. Never negative.	4 bytes	0 to 4294967295
short	Short integer.	2 bytes	-32768 to 32767
signed short	Signed short integer. Values may be negative, positive, or zero.	2 bytes	-32768 to 32767
unsigned short	Unsigned short integer. Values are always positive or zero. Never negative.	2 bytes	0 to 65535
long	Long integer.	4 bytes	-2147483648 to 2147483647
signed long	Signed long integer. Values may be negative, positive, or zero.	4 bytes	-2147483648 to 2147483647
unsigned long	Unsigned long integer. Values are always positive or zero. Never negative.	4 bytes	0 to 4294967295

Floating-point Data Types

Data Type (Keywords)	Description	Size	Typical Range
float	Floating point number. There is no fixed number of digits before or after the decimal point.	4 bytes	+/- 3.4e +/- 38 (~7 digits)
double	Double precision floating point number. More accurate compared to float.	8 bytes	+/- 1.7e +/- 308 (~15 digits)
long double	Long double precision floating point number.	8 bytes	+/- 1.7e +/- 308 (~15 digits)

Boolean Data Type

Data Type (Keywords)	Description	Size	Typical Range
bool	Boolean value. It can only take one of two values: true or false.	1 byte	true or false

You can also use this table :-

Type	Typical Bit Width	Typical Range
char	1byte	-128 to 127 or 0 to 255
unsigned char	1byte	0 to 255
signed char	1byte	-128 to 127
int	4bytes	-2147483648 to 2147483647
unsigned int	4bytes	0 to 4294967295
signed int	4bytes	-2147483648 to 2147483647
short int	2bytes	-32768 to 32767
unsigned short int	2bytes	0 to 65,535
signed short int	2bytes	-32768 to 32767
long int	8bytes	-9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807
signed long int	8bytes	-9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807
unsigned long int	8bytes	0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615
float	4bytes	+/- 3.4e +/- 38 (~7 digits)
double	8bytes	+/- 1.7e +/- 308 (~15 digits)
long double	8bytes	+/- 1.7e +/- 308 (~15 digits)
wchar_t	2 or 4 bytes	1 wide character

The size defined above is different for different compilers so to check the correct size of the various data types on your computer use this code.

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#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
 cout << "Size of char : " << sizeof(char) << endl;
 cout << "Size of int : " << sizeof(int) << endl;
 cout << "Size of short int : " << sizeof(short int) << endl;
 cout << "Size of long int : " << sizeof(long int) << endl;
 cout << "Size of float : " << sizeof(float) << endl;
 cout << "Size of double : " << sizeof(double) << endl;
 cout << "Size of wchar_t : " << sizeof(wchar_t) << endl;
 return 0;
}

In this example code we are using endl, which is used to insert new line character after every line, and << operator is used to pass multiple values out to the screen. And the sizeof() operator is used to get the size of data types.
This is the output that you are going to see:-

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Size of char : 1
Size of int : 4
Size of short int : 2
Size of long int : 8
Size of float : 4
Size of double : 8
Size of wchar_t : 4

typedef Declarations:

typedef is used to create a new name for existing type. This is the simple syntax to define the new type using typedef:-

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typedef type newname;
For example:-

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 typedef int num;

This above example is telling the compiler that num is another name for int. And you can use it like this and it is now perfectly legal and creates an integer variable called length:

num length;

Enumerated Types:

The enumerated type declares an optional type name and a set of zero or more identifier that can be used as values of the type.
Here is how we can use it.

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 enum enum-name {list of names}var-list;

Suppose we have an enum like the following:

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 enum Days {Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday};

I want to create an instance of this enum and initialize it with a proper value, so I do:

Days day = Days.Saturday;

Now I want to check my variable or instance with an existing enum value, so I do:

if (day == Days.Saturday)

Thanks and this was all for the Fundamental C++ Data Types so do share and if you want any articles do comment below so we can help you learn.