Data Types and

Variables
1. INTRODUCTION
2. CHARACTER SET
3. C TOKENS
4. DATA TYPES
 Introduction

 The Sequence of the Instruction written to perform

specific task is called the Program.
 This Instructions are formed using special symbols
and words according to some rigid rule is known as
syntax rules.
 Every Instruction must be written according to the
syntax rule of the languages.
 Like any other languages C languages has its
vocabulary and grammar. They are follow up for
making the program.
 Character Set

 Character Set is the set of the character.

 This characters are used to form the word, numbers
and expression.
 The characters in the c are grouped into the
following categories.
 Letters : Uppercase A…Z, Lowercase a…z
 Digits : All decimal digits 0 to 9
 Special Character : ,(comma) .(period) ; (semicolon) :(colon),
& (ampersand), # (number sign) etc.
 White spaces : Blank Space, Horizontal Space, New Line.
 C Tokens

 Smallest Individual units are known as C Tokens.

 There are six types of the C Tokens.
 Keywords

 Identifiers

 Constants

 String

 Special Symbols

 Operators.
 Keywords

 Every C word is classified as either keyword or

identifier.
 All keywords have fixed meanings and you can not
change its meanings.
 Keywords serve as a basic building blocks for
program statement. ANSI C supports 32 keywords.
 Ex: int, float, double, extern, static, auto, continue, if,
goto short, long etc. are the keywords
 Identifiers

 Identifiers refer to the names of variables, functions

and arrays.
 These are user defined names and consists of
sequence of letters and digits.
 Both uppercase and lowercase letters are permitted
to make the identifier but generally lowercase letters
are used to make the variable.
 Rules for Identifiers

 First character must be alphabet

 Must not contain white space
 Only first 31 characters are significant
 Can not use keyword as a identifier
 Constants
 Constants referred as a fixed value that don't change
during the execution of the program.
 C Support Several types of constants:
 Numeric Constants
Integer constants
Real Constants

 Character Constants
Single Character Constants
String Constants
 Integer Constants

 An integer constants refers as a sequence of digits.

 There are three types of integer constants.
 Decimal Integer

 Octal Integer

 Hexadecimal
 Decimal Integer

 It consists of 0-9 digits, preceded by an optional – or

+ sign.
 Valid example of decimal integer are : 123 , -321, 0 ,
654321, +78
 Embedded spaces, comma and non digit characters
are not permitted between digits.
 15 750, 20,000, $1000 are Illegal
 Octal Integer

 An Octal Integers consists of digits 0-7 with a leading

0.
 Example: 037, 0, 0435, 0551
 Hexadecimal Integer

 A sequence of digits preceded by 0x or OX is

considered as Hexadecimal Integer.
 Hexadecimal Integer includes 0 to 9 digits and A to F
letters.
 Example: 0x9, 0x9F, OXBC etc are valid.
 Real Constants

 Integer numbers are inadequate to represent

quantities such as distance, heights, temperature,
price and so on. These quantities are represented by
a number containing fractional parts like 12.32. Such
numbers are called real constants
 These numbers having a whole number followed by a
decimal digits.
 Example: 0.85, -0.75, 85.45, +241.54
 A real number may also be expressed in exponential
(Scientific) notation.
 General form :mantissa e exponent
 The mantissa is either a real number or integer
number.
 Exponent is an integer number with + or – sign.
 The letter e separating mantissa and exponent can be
written either in lowercase or in uppercase letter.
 Example : 215.65 may be written as 2.1565e2 in
exponential notation. e2 means multiple by 10^2
 75000 written as 7.5E4 or 7.5E+4
 -0.00038 written as -3.8e-4
 Comma, White space and dollar space is not
permitted in digits.
 25,0.000 , 7.1 e 4 , 1.5 E 2.5 (exponent must be
an integer),$255.
 Single Character Constants

 A single character constant contains a single

character enclosed with a pair of single quotation
mark (‘ ’).
 Example: ‘5’, ‘x’, ‘;’ , ‘ ’

 Note that character constant ‘5’ is not same as

number 5.
 Character constant have a integer value known as
ASCII value
 Example :
 printf (“%d”, ‘a’) would print the number 97.
 printf(“%c”, ‘97’) would print the letter a.
 String Constants

 A String Constant is a sequence of characters

enclosed in double quotation mark.
 Example: “Hello” , “1987”, “Well Done”, “X”
 Note : A single String constant does not have an
equivalent integer value, while a character constant
has an equivalent integer value.
 Backslash Character Constant:

 Backslash character constant are used in output

function.
 Example: ‘\n’ new line,
‘\t’ horizontal tab,
‘\’’ single quote etc.
 Variables

 A variable is a data name that may be used to store a

data value.
 Unlike constants that remain unchanged during the
execution of the program, a variable may take
different value at different time.
 Rules to declare the variables

 They must begin with letter or underscore(_)

 First character may be followed by letters or digits.
 Both lowercase and uppercase letters are distinct.
Example: Total and total are not same
 It should not be a keyword
 White space, Dollar sign are not allowed.
Example: John, delhi, First_tag, int_type ---- valid
Price$, char, group one, 123, (area) ------- Invalid
 Declaration of variables

 Syntax : data_type v1,v2,v3….vn ;

where v1,v2..vn are different variable name.

 Example: int count;

int number, total;
double ratio;
float price;
char c;
where int, double, float and char are data type.
 Assigning Values to variables

 Assignment operator (=) is used to assign value to a

variable.
 Example: price = 12.50;
ratio = 12.2345;
number=12;
c=‘a’;
Data Types
Primary Data Types
 Integer Types

 Integers are whole numbers with a range of values

supported by a particular machine.
 There are signed integer and unsigned integer.
Signed integer uses one bit for sign and other bits for
magnitude of the number. Unsigned integers are
always positive. It does not contain any bit for sign
so that it occupies all the bit for the magnitude of the
number.
 By using equation -2^n to +(2^n)-1 we can find out
the range of the number. Where n is the number of
bits.
Size and Range of Integer Data
 Floating Point Types

 Floating point numbers are stored in 32 bits with 6

digits of precision.
 Floating point numbers are defined in C by the
keyword float.
 When the accuracy provided by float is not sufficient
double data type is used. It uses 64 bits giving a
precision of 14 digits.
 When you want to extend more precision you can use
the long double data type. It uses 80 bits
 Size and Range of Floating Point Data

Type Size(Bits) Range

float 32 3.4E-38 to 3.4E+38

double 64 1.7E-308 to 1.7E+308

long double 80 3.4E-4932 to 1.1E+4932

 Void Types

 Void type has no values.

 Void type does not return any values.
 These are used to specify the return values from the
function when they don’t have any value to return
 Character Types

 Character types data in C are defined by keyword

char.
Type Size (bits) Range
char or signed char 8 -27 to 27 -1
unsigned char 8 0 to 28 -1