Data Types in C - Integer, Floating Point, and Void Explained (2023)

Data Types in C

There are several different ways to store data in C, and they are all unique from each other. The types of data that information can be stored as are called data types. C is much less forgiving about data types than other languages. As a result, it’s important to make sure that you understand the existing data types, their abilities, and their limitations.

One quirk of C’s data types is that they depend entirely on the hardware that you’re running your code on. An int on your laptop will be smaller than an int on a supercomputer, so knowing the limitations of the hardware you’re working on is important. This is also why the data types are defined as being minimums- an int value, as you will learn, is at minimum -32767 to 32767: on certain machines, it will be able to store even more values that this.

There are two categories that we can break this into: integers, and floating point numbers. Integers are whole numbers. They can be positive, negative, or zero. Numbers like -321, 497, 19345, and -976812 are all perfectly valid integers, but 4.5 is not because 4.5 is not a whole number.

Floating point numbers are numbers with a decimal. Like integers, -321, 497, 19345, and -976812 are all valid, but now 4.5, 0.0004, -324.984, and other non-whole numbers are valid too.

C allows us to choose between several different options with our data types because they are all stored in different ways on the computer. As a result, it is important to be aware of the abilities and limitations of each data type to choose the most appropriate one.

Integer data types

Characters: char

char holds characters- things like letters, punctuation, and spaces. In a computer, characters are stored as numbers, so char holds integer values that represent characters. The actual translation is described by the ASCII standard. Here’s a handy table for looking up that.

The actual size, like all other data types in C, depends on the hardware you’re working on. By minimum, it is at least 8 bits, so you will have at least 0 to 127. Alternatively, you can use signed char to get at least -128 to 127.

Standard Integers: int

The amount of memory that a single int takes depends on the hardware. However, you can expect an int to be at least 16 bits in size. This means that it can store values from -32,768 to 32,767, or more depending on hardware.

Like all of these other data types, there is an unsigned variant that can be used. The unsigned int can be positive and zero but not negative, so it can store values from 0 to 65,535, or more depending on hardware.

Short integers: short

This doesn’t get used often, but it’s good to know that it exists. Like int, it can store -32768 to 32767. Unlike int, however, this is the extent of its ability. Anywhere you can use short, you can use int.

Longer integers: long

The long data type stores integers like int, but gives a wider range of values at the cost of taking more memory. Long stores at least 32 bits, giving it a range of -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647. Alternatively, use unsigned long for a range of 0 to 4,294,967,295.

Even longer integers: long long

The long long data type is overkill for just about every application, but C will let you use it anyway. It’s capable of storing at least −9,223,372,036,854,775,807 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807. Alternatively, get even more overkill with unsigned long long, which will give you at least 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615.

Floating point number data types

Basic Floating point numbers: float

float takes at least 32 bits to store, but gives us 6 decimal places from 1.2E-38 to 3.4E+38.

Doubles: double

double takes double the memory of float (so at least 64 bits). In return, double can provide 15 decimal place from 2.3E-308 to 1.7E+308.

Getting a wider range of doubles: long double

long double takes at least 80 bits. As a result, we can get 19 decimal places from 3.4E-4932 to 1.1E+4932.

Picking the right data type

C makes pick the data type, and makes us be very specific and intentional about the way that we do this. This gives you a lot of power over your code, but it’s important to pick the right one.

In general, you should pick the minimum for your task. If you know you’ll be counting from integer 1 to 10, you don’t need a long and you don’t need a double. If you know that you will never have negative values, look into using the unsigned variants of the data types. By providing this functionality rather than doing it automatically, C is able to produce very light and efficient code. However, it’s up to you as the programmer to understand the abilities and limitations, and choose accordingly.

We can use the sizeof() operator to check the size of a variable. See the following C program for the usage of the various data types:

#include <stdio.h>int main(){ int a = 1; char b ='G'; double c = 3.14; printf("Hello World!\n"); //printing the variables defined above along with their sizes printf("Hello! I am a character. My value is %c and " "my size is %lu byte.\n", b,sizeof(char)); //can use sizeof(b) above as well printf("Hello! I am an integer. My value is %d and " "my size is %lu bytes.\n", a,sizeof(int)); //can use sizeof(a) above as well printf("Hello! I am a double floating point variable." " My value is %lf and my size is %lu bytes.\n",c,sizeof(double)); //can use sizeof(c) above as well printf("Bye! See you soon. :)\n"); return 0;}

Output:

Hello World!Hello! I am a character. My value is G and my size is 1 byte.Hello! I am an integer. My value is 1 and my size is 4 bytes.Hello! I am a double floating point variable. My value is 3.140000 and my size is 8 bytes.Bye! See you soon. :)

The Void type

The void type specifies that no value is available. It is used in three kinds of situations:

1. Function returns as void

There are various functions in C which do not return any value or you can say they return void. A function with no return value has the return type as void. For example, void exit (int status);

2. Function arguments as void

There are various functions in C which do not accept any parameter. A function with no parameter can accept a void. For example, int rand(void);

3. Pointers to void

A pointer of type void * represents the address of an object, but not its type. For example, a memory allocation function void *malloc( size_t size); returns a pointer to void which can be casted to any data type.