Feb 3

Primitive Data Types in .NET

.NET No comments

In the previous post I presented a reference with the different data types available in Java . I also mentioned the importance of choosing the adequate data type for the information we plan to store on our variables.

The table below shows the primitive data types available in .NET, for you reference.

The primitive data types are defined in the System namespace as structures. This allows the types to have methods in the same way classes do, such as .ToString() or .Parse().

These types are available in all .NET languages since they’re part of the CLR. Each language offers a friendly name for the types, but it represents the same data type.

.NET Type Description Range VB.NET Type C# Type
System.SByte 8-bit signed integer 128 to 127 SByte sbyte
System.Int16 16-bit signed integer -32,768 to 32,767 Short short
System.Int32 32-bit signed integer -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 Integer int
System.Int64 64-bit signed integer -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 Long long
System.Byte 8-bit unsigned integer 0 to 255 Byte byte
System.UInt16 16-bit unsigned integer 0 to 65,535 UShort ushort
System.UInt32 32-bit unsigned integer 0 to 4,294,967,295 UInteger uint
System.UInt64 64-bit unsigned integer 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 ULong ulong
System.Single 32-bit single-precision floating point with 7 significant figures +/-1.5 X 10245 to +/-3.4 X 1038 Single float
System.Double 64-bit single-precision floating point with 16 significant figures +/-5.0 X 102324 to +/-1.7 X 10308 Double double
System.Decimal 128-bit high-precision decimal notation with 28 significant figures +/-1.0 X 10228 to +/-7.9 X 1028 Decimal decimal
System.Boolean Represents true or false true or false Boolean bool
System.Char Represents a single 16-bit Unicode character Char char

Example

using System;

namespace Example
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            byte month = 12;
            int counter = 0;
            long sum = 1000000L;
            double pi = 3.1415926535897932384626433832795;
            float rate = 4.25F;
            char letter = 'Z';
            bool found = true;

            //will print 12
            Console.WriteLine(month);
            //will print 0
            Console.WriteLine(counter);
            //will print 1000000
            Console.WriteLine(sum);
            //will print 3.14159265358979
            Console.WriteLine(pi);
            //will print 4.25
            Console.WriteLine(rate);
            //will print Z
            Console.WriteLine(letter);
            //will print true
            Console.WriteLine(found);

            Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit");
            Console.ReadKey();
        }

    }
}

Please note how we use L and F at the end of a number to let the compiler know that the number is a long or a float number instead of int or a double number. This will avoid precision issues.

Tagged with ,

Get Free Updates
Related Posts
Comments