Variables and Data Types

-Shubham Panchal(IIT Hyderabad)

Variables
A variable is a named location in memory that is used to hold a value
that can be modified by the program.
You can think of a variable as a reserved piece of memory(roughly a
box in memory) wherein you can keep your data.
All the variables must be declared before they are used. The general
form for declaring a variable is:
dataType variableList;
where dataType is the type of variable(s) and variableList is the comma

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Variables
-separated list of variable name(s).
Variable name can be any valid identifier.
Rules for naming variables:
A variable name is a combination of alphabets, digits and
_(underscore).
Special symbols are not allowed for variable naming except
underscore.
A variable name cannot start with a digit, it must start with either
alphabet or underscore.

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Variables
No commas and blanks are allowed within variable names.
Good Practices:
 Keep the variable name relevant to its task or purpose.
 If you want to give two words as a variable name, then either you can
use underscore or you can use the camel notation. Suppose you want
to set First Name as your variable name then either you can use
First_Name or you can use FirstName.
 Start your variable name with a small alphabet. For example,
firstName.

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Data Types in C
Data types are means to identify the type of data and associated
operations for handling it.
C allows two kind of data types i.e. fundamental data type and
derived- data types.
In this section, we will be discussing only fundamental data types in C.
Of course, in future we will discuss the derived data types as well  .

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Fundamental Data Types in C
Fundamental data types are also known as primitive data types.
There are five primitive data types in C:
i. int data type(for integers)
ii. char data type(for characters)
iii. float data type(for floating-point numbers)
iv. double data type(for double precision floating point numbers)
v. void data type(for empty set values or non returning functions)

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Fundamental Data Types in C
int data type: This data type is used to store integers only. Integers do
not have any fractional part. A variable with int data type is capable of
storing integers.
char data type : This data type is used to store any valid character
from the character set of C. A variable with char data type is capable
of storing a single character or escape sequences.
NOTE: If a character from the character set of C is stored in a char
variable, its value is equivalent to the integer code of that character
which is its ASCII Code.

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Fundamental Data Types in C
float data type: This data type is used to store floating point
numbers(numbers with fractional part). For example, 1.23 is a floating
point number and not an integer. The number 123 is an integer but
123.0 is a floating point number. Floating point numbers can also be
written in exponent notation. For example, 147.9101 would be written
as 1.479101E02 in exponent notation.
double data type: This data type is also used to store floating point
numbers but it stores floating point numbers with large range and
precision(significant numbers after decimal point). It stands for

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Fundamental Data Types in C
-double precision floating-point. It is usually used when type float is
too small or insufficiently precise.
void data type: This data type is used for empty set of values. It is
used as the return type for functions that do not return a value. No
variable of type void can be declared.

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Data Type Modifiers
Except type void, the fundamental data types can be modified.
Modifiers are used to alter the meaning of the base type to fit various
situations more precisely.
There are four modifiers in C:
i. signed
ii. unsigned
iii. long
iv. short

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Data Type Modifiers
You can apply signed, unsigned, long and short to int data type and you
will get different range.
Data type Approximate size Minimal Range
short or signed short 2 -32768 to 32767
unsigned short 2 0 to 65535
int or signed int 2 -32768 to 32767
unsigned int 2 0 to 65535
long or signed long 4 -2147483648 to 21476483647
unsigned long 4 0 to 4294967295

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Data Type Modifiers
Note that the size and range of data type vary from platform to platform.
It is obvious from the table that short, int and long are signed by
default.
You can also apply signed and unsigned modifiers to char data type.

Data type Approximate size Minimal Range

char or signed char 1 -128 to 127
unsigned char 1 0 to 255

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Data Type Modifiers
Note that a char data type is really another integer type( as inside
memory it actually holds numbers i.e., equivalent ASCII code).
You can apply long modifier to double data type.

Data type Approximate size Minimal Range Digits of Precision

float 4 3.4x10-38 to 3.4x1038 - 1 7
double 8 1.7x10-308 to 1.7x10308 – 1 15
long double 10 3.4x10-4932 to 3.4x104932 – 1 19

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Data Type Modifiers
Some implementations may allow you to use unsigned to the floating
point data types. However, it reduces the portability of your code and is
generally not recommended.

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