DATA TYPES AND VARIABLES

Before reading this tutorial, you must read First C++ Program.

CPU AND MEMORY

The amount if bits on which it can operate simultaneously is known as the

word length of the computer. When we say that Pentium 4 is a 32 bit
machine, it means that it simultaneously operates on 32 bit of data. Data is
stored in the memory at physical memory locations. These locations are
known as the memory address. It is very difficult for humans to remember
the memory addresses in numbers like 46735, so instead we name a memory
address by a variable.

VARIABLES

Variables are a way of reserving memory to hold some data and assign
names to them so that we don't have to remember the numbers like 46735
and instead we can use the memory location by simply referring to the
variable. Every variable is mapped to a unique memory address. For
example, we have 3 variable v1, v2, v3. They may be assigned the memory
addresses 32000, 12456, 67893 respectively. Here is the illustration.

Declaring and defining variables

A variable in C++ must be declared (the type of variable) and defined (values
assigned to a variable) before it can be used in a program. Following shows
how to declare a variable.

DATA TYPES

Every variable in C++ can store a value. However, the type of value which
the variable can store has to be specified by the programmer. C++ supports
the following inbuilt data types:- int (to store integer values), float (to store
decimal values) and char (to store characters), bool (to store Boolean value
either 0 or 1) and void (signifies absence of information).

Integer data type

Integer (int) variables are used to store integer values like 34, 68704 etc. To
declare a variable of type integer, type keyword int followed by the name of
the variable. You can give any name to a variable but there are certain
constraints, they are specified in Identifiers section. For example, the
statement
int sum;

declares that sum is a variable of type int. You can assign a value to it now or
later. In order to assign values along with declaration use the assignment
operator (=).

int sum = 25;

assigns value 25 to variable sum.

There are three types of integer variables in C++, short, int and long int. All
of them store values of type integer but the size of values they can store
increases from short to long int. This is because of the size occupied by them
in memory of the computer. The size which they can take is dependent on
type of computer and varies. More is the size, more the value they can hold.
For example, int variable has 2 or 4 bytes reserved in memory so it can hold
2 32= 65536 values. Variables can be signed or unsigned depending they
store only positive values or both positive and negative values. And short,
variable has 2 bytes. Long int variable has 4 bytes.

Float data type

To store decimal values, you use float data type. Floating point data types
comes in three sizes, namely float, double and long double. The difference is
in the length of value and amount of precision which they can take and it
increases from float to long double. For example, statement

float average = 2.34;

declares a variable average which is of type float and has the initial value
2.34

Character data type

A variable of type char stores one character. It size of a variable of type char
is typically 1 byte. The statement

char name = 'c';

declares a variable of type char (can hold characters) and has the initial
values as character c. Note that value has to be under single quotes.

Boolean

A variable of type bool can store either value true or false and is mostly used
in comparisons and logical operations. When converted to integer, true is any
non zero value and false corresponds to zero.

You can find typical size of all data types here.

KEYWORDS

Keywords are the reserved words in any language which have a special pre
defined meaning and cannot be used for any other purpose. You cannot use
keywords for naming variables or some other purpose. We saw the use of
keywords main, include, return, int in our first C++ program.

IDENTIFIERS

Identifiers are the name of functions, variables, classes, arrays etc. which you
create while writing your programs. Identifiers are just like names in any
language. There are certain rules to name identifiers in C++. They are:-

1. Identifiers must contain combinations of digits, characters and underscore (_).

2. Identifier names cannot start with digit.
3. Keyword cannot be used as an identifier name and upper case and lower case are distinct.

Identifier names can contain any combination of characters as opposed to the

restriction of 31 letters in C.

CONSTANTS

Constants are fixed values which cannot change. For example 123, 12.23, 'a'
are constants.

Now it's time to move on to our next tutorial Input values using cin operator.

Go to the previous lesson or proceed to the next lesson

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