Built-in Data Types


Built-in data type is a type which is defined in the language standard. Usually this type is processed by some processor commands. Every type is defined by size of data word in bytes and set of possible operations with it.

Here is a list of possible data types, which should be supported by any modern programming language.

One byte word interpretations:

  • 8 bits - word is interpreted as 8 independent bits
  • unsigned byte number - for unsigned byte integer data type fro 0 to 255
  • signed byte number - for signed byte integer from -128 to 127
  • character code - for character code

Two bytes word interpretations:

  • 16 bits - word is interpreted as 16 independent bits
  • two independent bytes - in processor with parallel data processing
  • unsigned short integer number - for unsigned short integer data type from 0 to 65535
  • signed short integer number - for signed short integer from -32768 to 32767
  • wide character code
  • short floating point number
  • memory address

Four bytes word interpretations:

  • 32 bits - word is interpreted as 32 independent bits
  • four independent bytes - in processor with parallel data processing
  • two independent 2-bytes word - in processor with parallel data processing
  • unsigned number - for unsigned integer data type from 0 to 4294967295
  • signed number - for signed integer from -2147483648 to 2147483647
  • floating point number
  • memory address

Eight bytes word interpretations:

  • 64 bits - word is interpreted as 64 independent bits
  • eight independent bytes - in processor with parallel data processing
  • four independent 2-bytes word - in processor with parallel data processing
  • two independent 4-bytes word - in processor with parallel data processing
  • unsigned long integer number - from 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615
  • signed long integer number - from -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807
  • floating point number (double)
  • memory address

Ten bytes word (Intel processor) interpretations:

  • 80 bits - word is interpreted as 80 independent bits
  • ten independent bytes - in processor with parallel data processing
  • Five independent 2-bytes word - in processor with parallel data processing
  • unsigned big integer number - from 0 to ??
  • signed big integer number - from -?? to ??
  • floating point number (long double)
  • memory address ?

Sixteen bytes word interpretations:

  • 128 bits - word is interpreted as 128 independent bits
  • Sixteen independent bytes - in processor with parallel data processing
  • eight independent 2-bytes word - in processor with parallel data processing
  • four independent 4-bytes word - in processor with parallel data processing
  • two independent 8-bytes word - in processor with parallel data processing
  • unsigned huge integer number - for unsigned integer data type from 0 to ??
  • signed huge integer number - for signed integer from -?? to ??
  • floating point number
  • memory address (dream!)

32 bytes word interpretations:

  • 256 bits - word is interpreted as 256 independent bits
  • and more ...