DATA TYPES
Data type determines the possible values that an identifier can have and the valid operations that
can be applied on it.
In C language data types are broadly classified as:
1. Basic data types(Primitive data types)
2. Derived data types
3. User-Defined data types
1. Basic data types:
There are five basic data types:
(i)Character - char
(ii)Integer - int
(iii)Single-Precision floating point - float
(iv)Double Precision floating point - double
(v)No value available - void
Data types and their memory requirements
S.No Data type No of bytes required Range
1 Char 1 -128 to 127
2 Int 2 -32768 to 32767
3 Float 4 3.4*10-38 to 3.4*10 38
4 Double 8 1.7*10-308 to 1.7*10308
5 Unsigned char 1 0 to 255
Derived data types
These data types are derived from the basic data types. Derived data types available in C are:
1. Array type eg. Char[ ], int [ ]
2. Pointer type eg. Char*, int*
3. Function type eg. int (int,int), float(int)
User-defined data types
The C language provides the flexibility to the user to create new data types. These newly created
data types are called user-defined data types. The user defined data types available in C can be
created by using:
1. Structure
2. Union
3. Enumeration
Type qualifiers and Type Modifiers
The declaration statement can optionally have type qualifiers or type modifiers or both.
Type qualifier
A type qualifier is used to indicate the special properties of data within an object. It never affects the
range of values & the arithmetic properties of the declared object.
Two type qualifiers available in C are:
Const qualifier: Object value will not be changed during the execution of a
program
Volatile qualifier
Type Modifiers
A type modifier modifies the base type to yield a new type. It modifies the range and the arithmetic
properties of the base type.
Type modifiers and the corresponding keywords available in C are:
Signed (signed)
Unsigned (unsigned)
Short (short)
Long (long)
