Introduction to C++

Language Datatypes

Lecture 5

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 Levels of Programming Languages
There are 3 levels of programming
languages

i) High-Level Language
ii) Middle-Level Language
iii) Low-Level Language

2
 Uses of C/C++ Programming Language

Areas where C/C++ language can be used are

 Operating Systems
 Network Drivers
 Communication Packages
 Databases
 Language Interpreters
 Utilities
 Language Compilers
 Spreadsheets
 Text Editors
 etc etc

3
 C/C++ Character Set

C/C++ character set comprises of

following characters
 A,B,C,….Z
 a,b,c,…...z

 0,1,2,……9

, . ; : ? ! “ / ‘ \ | ~

( ) [ ] { } < >

+ - # % _ ^ = & *

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White Space Characters

 The character that produces blank

space when printed is called a white
space character, e.g.
 Spaces
 Tabs
 New Lines

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Data Transformation
 Programs transform data from one form to another
 Input data  Output data
 Stimulus  Response

 Programming languages store and process data in

various ways depending on the type of the data;
consequently, all data read, processed, or written
by a program must have a data type

 Two distinguishing characteristics of a programming

language are the data types it supports and the
operations on those data types

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Data Handling
 Various types of data
 E.g. letters, numbers, symbols, etc.
 Data handling requires different data types
 Data Type: type of data that a variable can
hold and the operations that can be
performed on it.
 Logical to ask the computer to multiply a
float by an integer (1.5 x 5)
 Illogical to ask the computer to multiply a
float by a string (1.5 x FUI)
Constants & Variables
 Constants
 1, 56, 1.89, ’a’, ’Z’, ”BSSE”

 Variables
x=5
y = 20

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 What is Data Type
 A data type is a set of values, together with a set of
associated operations on those values.
 Here is the table for different types:-

Date Type Used for Examples

Alphanumeric “hello world”, “Islamabad”,

String
characters “Alice”
Integer Whole numbers 7, 12, 999, -47
Float (floating Number with a decimal
3.15, 9.06, 00.13
point) point
Single alphabet or
Character ‘A’, ‘9’, ‘&’ (uses ASCII)
number
Representing logical
Boolean True, False
values
A Data Type

 A data type is
 A set of values AND
 A set of operations on those values
 A data type is used to
 Identify the type of a variable when the
variable is declared
 Identify the type of the return value of a
function
 Identify the type of a parameter expected
by a function

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A Data Type (continued)

 When the compiler encounters a declaration for

a variable, it sets up a memory location for it
 An operator used on a variable or variables is
legal only if
 The operator is defined in that programming
language for a variable of that type
 The variable or variables involved with the
operator are of the same or compatible
types

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C++ Data Types
 Primitive Built-in Data Types

Type Keyword
Boolean bool
Character char
Integer int
Floating point float
Double floating point double
Valueless void
Wide character wchar_t
Primitive Built-in Data Types
Many of the above data types can be modify
using these modifiers:-
signed

unsigned

short

long
 Variable Types and Memory Used

Typical Size
Type Typical Range
(Byte)
char 1 byte -128 to 127

unsigned char 1 byte 0 to 255

signed char 1 byte -128 to 127

-2147483648 to
int 4 bytes
2147483647
unsigned int 4 bytes 0 to 4294967295
-2147483648 to
signed int 4 bytes
2147483647
 Variable Types and Memory Used
Typical Size
Type Typical Range
(Byte)
short int 2 bytes -32768 to 32767

unsigned short int 2 bytes 0 to 65,535

signed short int 2 bytes -32768 to 32767

-
9,223,372,036,854,775,808
long int 8 bytes
to
9,223,372,036,854,775,807
-
9,223,372,036,854,775,808
signed long int 8 bytes
to
9,223,372,036,854,775,807
0 to
unsigned long int 8 bytes 18,446,744,073,709,551,61
5
 Variable Types and Memory Used

Typical Size
Type Typical Range
(Byte)
-3.4 x 1038 to +3.4 x 1038
float 4 bytes
(~7 digits)
-1.7 x 10308 to +1.7 x 10308
double 8 bytes
(~15 digits)
wchar_t 2 or 4 bytes 1 wide character
Data Types
 Boolean: for storing true or false values.
Boolean variables are declared using the
keyword bool
 String: generally means an ordered
sequence of characters, enclosing
delimiters are double quotes “some string“.
Declared using keyword string
 The sizes of variables might be different
from those shown in the above table,
depending on the compiler and the
computer you are using.

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Variable Declaration
When variables are declared of a
particular data type then
the variable becomes the place where the data is
stored, and
data types is the type of value(data) stored by
that variable.
int var;
int is the datatype of the variable,
var is the variable name
; is statement terminator
Identifiers
Identifiers refer to the names of
data types, constants, variables, and
functions
Cannot be keywords

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Rules for Constructing Identifiers in C++
 Can contain letters, digits and underscores,
capital letters A-Z, lowercase letters a-z,
digits 0-9, and the underscore character _
 Digit can not be the first character.
 First character must be a letter or
underscore
 Can not consist of an underscore alone.
 Usually only the first 32 characters are
significant.

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Rules for Constructing Identifiers in C++
(contd.)
 May not be same as keyword or function
name etc.
 There can be no embedded blanks (spaces
are not allowed).
 Keywords cannot be used as identifiers
 Identifiers are case sensitive

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Types of C/C++ Instructions
There are 4 types of C/C++ Instructions.
i) Type declaration Instructions
Variable types and definitions etc.
ii) Input/Output Instructions
Data Input, Data Display, Data
Write etc
iii) Control Instructions
Controls the sequence of execution
of the program instructions.
iv) Arithmetic Instructions
Arithmetic Operations etc
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