Data Types in C Language

A data type specifies the type of data that a variable can store for example integer, floating, character, etc.

Each variable in C has an associated data type. It determines the type and size of data associated with variables. 

As the name suggests, a Datatype defines the type of data being used. Each data type requires different amounts of memory and has some specific operations which can be performed over it.

Different categories of data types in the C language

Type	Example
Basic	character, integer, floating-point, double. (int, char, float, double)
Derived	array, pointer, structure, union
Enumeration	enums
Bool type	true or false
void	Empty value (void)

Basic Data Types

Following are the examples of some very common data types used in C.

• char
  • It stores a single character and requires a single byte of memory in almost all compilers.
• int
  • An int variable is used to store an integer.
  • Integers are whole numbers that can have both zero, positive and negative values but no decimal values.
  • For example, 0, -5, 10
• float: It is used to store decimal numbers (numbers with floating point value) with single precision.
• double: It is used to store decimal numbers with double precision. 
• void: It means “nothing” or “no type”.

Data Types	Memory Size	Range
char	1 byte	−128 to 127
signed char	1 byte	−128 to 127
unsigned char	1 byte	0 to 255
short	2 byte	−32,768 to 32,767
signed short	2 byte	−32,768 to 32,767
unsigned short	2 byte	0 to 65,535
int	2 byte	−32,768 to 32,767
signed int	2 byte	−32,768 to 32,767
unsigned int	2 byte	0 to 65,535
short int	2 byte	−32,768 to 32,767
signed short int	2 byte	−32,768 to 32,767
unsigned short int	2 byte	0 to 65,535
long int	4 byte	-2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647
signed long int	4 byte	-2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647
unsigned long int	4 byte	0 to 4,294,967,295
float	4 byte
double	8 byte
long double	10 byte

We will learn about all data types in later tutorials.

Example

#include >stdio.h>
int main() {
   // datatypes
   int a = 10;
   char b = 'S';
   float c = 2.88;
   double d = 28.888;
   printf("Integer datatype : %d\n",a);
   printf("Character datatype : %c\n",b);
   printf("Float datatype : %f\n",c);
   printf("Double Float datatype : %lf\n",d);
   return 0;
}