Programming for MSc Part I Part 2: Scalar Data Types

(a) What Scalar Types are

C Type Hierarchy

C Types

void Scalar Function Union Aggregate

Types Types Types Types

Pointer Arithmetic Array Structure

Types Types Types Types

Integral Floating−point
Types Types

Enumerated Character
Types Types

−→ Scalar Types are the different kinds of Numbers

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Programming for MSc Part I Part 2: Scalar Data Types — What Scalar Types are

Scalar Types Categories

ScalarType: ArithmeticType | PointerType

ArithmeticType: IntegralType | FloatingPointType
IntegralType: EnumeratedType | CharacterType

Integer Types

• There are integer types of different length and signedness

• Signedness: a type can represent negative numbers
• The size of integer types is implementation defined
• Example: int is 32 bit on many systems

Different integer types:

Name Signed Comment

int Yes The standard type in C
short int Yes Or: short
char ? Signedness depends on
compiler
signed char Yes
long int Yes Or: long, is not always
longer than int
unsigned int No Or: unsigned
unsigned short int No Or: unsigned short
unsigned long int No Or: unsigned long
unsigned char No

−→ Rule of thumb: Use int whenever possible!

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Programming for MSc Part I Part 2: Scalar Data Types — What Scalar Types are

Overflow and Underflow

Integer numbers’ binary representation, e.g. signed char:

10 = 21 + 23 = 0000 1010

On most computers negative numbers are encoded using the

two’s complement:

−10 = invert(10) + 1 = 1111 0110

−→ What happens when adding one to 0111 1110?

#include <stdio.h>
#include <limits.h>
int main (void)
{
printf "%d, %d\n", INT_MIN - 1, INT_MAX + 1);
return 0;
}

Limits

• The header file limits.h contains the types’ minimal and

maximal values
• Example: INT MAX for the maximal int value
• The rest: Use the source, Luke!

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Programming for MSc Part I Part 2: Scalar Data Types — What Scalar Types are

Integer Format codes for ‘printf’ and ‘scanf’

For int types:

%d int Signed integer

%hd short Short signed integer
%ld long Long signed integer
%u unsigned Unsigned integer
%hu unsigned short Short unsigned integer
%lu unsigned long Long unsigned integer
%o unsigned Octal, length like above
%x unsigned Hexadecimal, lowercase,
length like above
%X unsigned Hexadecimal, Uppercase,
length like above

For char types:

%c char interpreted as character

%hhd signed char interpreted as signed
number
%hhu unsigned char interpreted as unsigned
number

• Especially for scanf() the correct format codes are crucial!

• We can also add fill characters and field width
• Example: printf ("%04d\n", 2) −→ “0002”
• Many more flags −→ See Online Documentation!

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Programming for MSc Part I Part 2: Scalar Data Types — What Scalar Types are

Floating Point Types

• There are two floating point types in C: float and double

• Floating point types are always signed
• The double type has double precision but uses more memory
• The maximum and minimum values are found in float.h
• Example: DBL MAX for the largest double value

Comparing Floating Point Types

• With floating point numbers we will have rounding errors

−→ Exact comparisons are impossible!
• No problems: “<”, “>”, “<=”, “>=”
• May not work: “==”
• Instead of equality use FLT EPSILON (for float) and
DBL EPSILON (for double) from float.h
• How? To see whether d1 and d2 are equal just compare their
difference with DBL EPSILON

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Programming for MSc Part I Part 2: Scalar Data Types — What Scalar Types are

Floating Point Format codes for ‘printf’ and ‘scanf’

For printf():

%f double Floating point notation, this is used for both,

float and double!
%e double Exponential notation with lowercase ‘e’, this
is used for both, float and double!
%E double Exponential notation with uppercase ‘E’, this
is used for both, float and double!

• The output format can be modified again:

– printf ("%5.1f\n", 3.14) −→ “ 3.1”
– printf ("%07.3f\n", 3.14) −→ “003.140”
– printf ("%e\n", 3.14) −→ “3.140000e+00”
– printf ("%+e\n", 3.14) −→ “+3.140000e+00”
• Many more flags −→ See Online Documentation!

For scanf():

%f float Floating point or exponential notation, only

for float!
%lf double Floating point or exponential notation, only
for double!
%e float like %f
%le double like %lf
%E float like %f
%lE double like %lf

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Programming for MSc Part I Part 2: Scalar Data Types

(b) Operations on Scalar Types

Scalar Type Constants

• A constant is an immediate value, like 3.14 or 3.1400e+00

• But what type does a given constant have?
• The type can be specified using suffixes
• Without suffix a standard type will be assumed

Standard types for constants:

3.14 double
42 int
’c’ char

Nonstandard types for constants:

3.14f or 3.14F float

42l or 42L long
42u or 42U unsigned
42lu or 42lU or ... unsigned long

Numbering systems:

022 Octal, the corresponding decimal value

here is 18 !
0x2a or 0x2A Hexadecimal, the corresponding decimal
value is 42 !

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Programming for MSc Part I Part 2: Scalar Data Types — Operations on Scalar Types

Mixing Types

• We can use an explicit typecast to set the type

• An explicit typecast looks like this:
(type)expression
• Example: (int)3.14 will result in an int discarding anything
after the dot: 3
• If we don’t the compiler will use the Usual Conversions
• Typecasts give no protection against data loss!

The Usual Arithmetic Conversions

1. If any operand is double the whole expression will be double

2. Else if any operand is float the whole expression will be
float
3. All values of shorter types than int (signed and unsigned)
will be converted to int if they fit, else to unsigned
4. Else the shortest signed-if-possible value that can hold all the
values occuring will be chosen

Rule of thumb1:

Operands with different types get converted when you do

arithmetic. Everything is converted to the type of the
floatiest, longest operand, signed if possible without losing
bits.
1 See Peter van der Linden: Expert C Programming, deep C secrets

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Programming for MSc Part I Part 2: Scalar Data Types — Operations on Scalar Types

The Math Library

• The math library provides advanced arithmetic functions

• The prototypes can be found in the header math.h
• On Unix systems it must be explicitly linked to the program:
gcc -o foo foo.o -lm
• On other systems it is part of the standard library

Some Functions from the Math Library

• Trigonometric functions: double sin(double x)

• Inverse trigonometric: double asin(double x)
• Exponentiation: double pow(double base, double pow)
• Logarithm: double log (double x)
• Many more: Read The Fine Manual

Boolean Expressions

• Boolean expressions are represented as int in C

• If a logical expression is false we’ll get 0
• If a logical expression is true we’ll get 1
• However any other value but 0 is considered as true, too
• Example: int equal = (a == b);
• Or even: int foo = (a == b) + (c == d);

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