Objective-C Data Types ”; Previous Next In the Objective-C programming language, data types refer to an extensive system used for declaring variables or functions of different types. The type of a variable determines how much space it occupies in storage and how the bit pattern stored is interpreted. The types in Objective-C can be classified as follows − Sr.No. Types & Description 1 Basic Types − They are arithmetic types and consist of the two types: (a) integer types and (b) floating-point types. 2 Enumerated types − They are again arithmetic types and they are used to define variables that can only be assigned certain discrete integer values throughout the program. 3 The type void − The type specifier void indicates that no value is available. 4 Derived types − They include (a) Pointer types, (b) Array types, (c) Structure types, (d) Union types and (e) Function types. The array types and structure types are referred to collectively as the aggregate types. The type of a function specifies the type of the function”s return value. We will see basic types in the following section whereas other types will be covered in the upcoming chapters. Integer Types Following table gives you details about standard integer types with its storage sizes and value ranges − Type Storage size Value range char 1 byte -128 to 127 or 0 to 255 unsigned char 1 byte 0 to 255 signed char 1 byte -128 to 127 int 2 or 4 bytes -32,768 to 32,767 or -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 unsigned int 2 or 4 bytes 0 to 65,535 or 0 to 4,294,967,295 short 2 bytes -32,768 to 32,767 unsigned short 2 bytes 0 to 65,535 long 4 bytes -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 unsigned long 4 bytes 0 to 4,294,967,295 To get the exact size of a type or a variable on a particular platform, you can use the sizeof operator. The expression sizeof(type) yields the storage size of the object or type in bytes. Following is an example to get the size of int type on any machine − Live Demo #import <Foundation/Foundation.h> int main() { NSLog(@”Storage size for int : %d n”, sizeof(int)); return 0; } When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result on Linux − 2013-09-07 22:21:39.155 demo[1340] Storage size for int : 4 Floating-Point Types Following table gives you details about standard float-point types with storage sizes and value ranges and their precision − Type Storage size Value range Precision float 4 byte 1.2E-38 to 3.4E+38 6 decimal places double 8 byte 2.3E-308 to 1.7E+308 15 decimal places long double 10 byte 3.4E-4932 to 1.1E+4932 19 decimal places The header file float.h defines macros that allow you to use these values and other details about the binary representation of real numbers in your programs. Following example will print storage space taken by a float type and its range values − Live Demo #import <Foundation/Foundation.h> int main() { NSLog(@”Storage size for float : %d n”, sizeof(float)); return 0; } When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result on Linux − 2013-09-07 22:22:21.729 demo[3927] Storage size for float : 4 The void Type The void type specifies that no value is available. It is used in three kinds of situations − Sr.No. Types and Description 1 Function returns as void There are various functions in Objective-C which do not return value or you can say they return void. A function with no return value has the return type as void. For example, void exit (int status); 2 Function arguments as void There are various functions in Objective-C which do not accept any parameter. A function with no parameter can accept as a void. For example, int rand(void); The void type may not be understood to you at this point, so let us proceed and we will cover these concepts in upcoming chapters.
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