Fundamentals of Programming

Data Types

By: Võ Văn Hải

Email: [email protected]

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Objectives

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Type Name Forms
▸All built-in types have essentially three name forms. (e.g., string type)
- the full name (e.g., System.String)
- the implied or simplified name (e.g., String), and
- the keyword (e.g., string)
▸The full name provides all the context and disambiguates the type from
all other types.
▸All the predefined types themselves are part of the Base Class Library
(BCL)—the name given to the set of APIs that comprise the underlying
framework. The full name of the types included in the BCL, therefore, is
also the BCL name.
▸Guidelines
- DO use the C# keyword rather than the unqualified name when specifying a data
type (e.g., string rather than String).
- DO favor consistency rather than variety within your code.

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Fundamental Numeric Types
Introduction
▸The basic numeric types in C# have keywords associated with them. These
types include integer types, floating-point types, and a special floating-
point type called decimal to store large numbers with no representation
error.
▸This variety of each numeric type allows you to select a data type large
enough to hold its intended range of values without wasting resources.

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Fundamental Numeric Types
Integer Types

Type Size Range (Inclusive) BCL Name Signed Literal

Suffix
sbyte 8 bits –128 to 127 System.SByte Yes
byte 8 bits 0 to 255 System.Byte No
short 16 bits –32,768 to 32,767 System.Int16 Yes
ushort 16 bits 0 to 65,535 System.UInt16 No
int 32 bits –2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 System.Int32 Yes
uint 32 bits 0 to 4,294,967,295 System.UInt32 No U or u
Long 64 bits –9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to System.Int64 Yes L or l
9,223,372,036,854,775,807
ulong 64 bits 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 System.UInt64 No UL or ul
nint Signed 32-bit or 64-bit Depends on platform where the System.IntPtr Yes
integer is a [depends on code is executing.
platform] Use sizeof(nint) to retrieve size.
nuint Unsigned 32-bit or 64- Depends on platform where the System.UIntPtr No
bit integer is a [depends code is executing.
on platform] Use sizeof(nuint) to retrieve size.

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Fundamental Numeric Types
Floating-Point Types (float, double)

▸Floating-point numbers have varying degrees of precision, and binary

floating-point types can represent numbers exactly only if they are a
fraction with a power of 2 as the denominator.
▸The accuracy of a floating-point number is in proportion to the
magnitude of the number it represents. A floating-point number is
precise to a certain number of digits of precision, not by a fixed value
such as ±0.01.
▸There are at most 17 significant digits for a double and 9 significant digits
for a float
Type Size Significant Digits BCL Name Significant Digits Literal Suffix
float 32 bits ±1.5 × 10−45 to System.Single 7 F or f
±3.4 × 1038
double 64 bits ±5.0 × 10−324 to System.Double 15–16 D or d
±1.7 × 10308

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Fundamental Numeric Types
Decimal Type
▸C# also provides a decimal floating-point type with 128-bit precision. This
type is suitable for financial calculations.
▸Unlike binary floating-point numbers, the decimal type maintains exact
accuracy for all denary numbers within its range. With the decimal type,
therefore, a value of 0.1 is exactly 0.1.
▸However, while the decimal type has greater precision than the floating-
point types, it has a smaller range. Thus, conversions from floating-point
types to the decimal type may result in overflow errors.
▸Also, calculations with decimals are slightly (generally imperceptibly)
slower.
Type Size Range (Inclusive) BCL Name Significant Literal
Digits Suffix
decimal 128 bits 1.0 × 10−28 to System.Decimal 28–29 M or m
approximately 7.9
× 1028
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Fundamental Types
Boolean Type (bool)
▸Another C# primitive is a Boolean or conditional type, bool, which
represents true or false in conditional statements and expressions.
Allowable values are the keywords true and false. The BCL name for bool
is System.Boolean.

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Fundamental Types
Character Type (char)
▸A char type represents 16-bit characters whose set of possible values are
drawn from the Unicode character set’s UTF-16 encoding.
▸A char is the same size as a 16-bit unsigned integer (ushort), which
represents values between 0 and 65,535. However, char is a unique type
in C# and code should treat it as such.
▸The BCL name for char is System.Char.
▸To construct a literal char, place the character within single quotes, as in
'A'. Allowable characters comprise the full range of ANSI keyboard
characters, including letters, numbers, and special symbols.

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Fundamental Types
Character Type (char) – Escape sequence
▸Some characters cannot be placed directly into the source code and instead
require special handling.
Escape Sequence Character Name Unicode Encoding
\' Single quote \u0027
\" Double quote \u0022
\\ Backslash \u005C
\0 Null character \u0000
\a Alert (system beep) \u0007
\b Backspace \u0008
\f Form feed \u000C
\n Line feed (often referred to as a newline) \u000A
\r Carriage return \u000D
\t Horizontal tab \u0009
\v Vertical tab \u000B
\uxxxx Unicode character in hexadecimal \u0029
\x[n][n][n]n Unicode character in hex (first three placeholders are optional); variable-length \u3A
version of \uxxxx
\U00xxxxxx, Unicode escape sequence for creating surrogate pairs (max supported \U00020100
sequence is \U0010FFFF)
\uxxxx\uxxxx Unicode escape sequence for creating surrogate pairs beyond \U0010FFFF \uD83D\uDE00

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Fundamental Types
Strings
▸A finite sequence of zero or more characters is called a string. The C#
keyword is string, whose BCL name is System.String.
▸The string type includes some special characteristics that may be
unexpected to developers familiar with other programming languages.
▸Strings include a “verbatim string” prefix character of @, support for
string interpolation with the $ prefix character.
- Use the @ symbol in front of a string to signify that a backslash should not be
interpreted as the beginning of an escape sequence.
- The resultant verbatim string literal does not reinterpret just the backslash character.
Whitespace is also taken verbatim when using the @ string syntax.

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Fundamental Types
Strings - Raw String Literals
▸Raw string literals enable embedding any arbitrary text, including
whitespace, newlines, additional quotes, and other special characters,
without requiring escape sequences.

▸Raw String Literals with Interpolation

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Fundamental Types
Raw String Literals with Interpolation
▸However, an additional complexity is that the curly brace count into which
you place the expression must match the number of dollar symbols ($)
you place at the beginning of the string. For example, two-dollar symbols
would require each expression to be surrounded by two curly braces.

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Fundamental Types
String methods
▸Use Object navigator for observing

▸Use MSDN https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.string?view=net-8.0

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Fundamental Types
null type
▸The null value, identified with the null keyword, indicates that the variable
does not refer to any valid object.
▸null can also be used as a type of “literal.” The value null indicates that a
variable is set to nothing. Code that sets a variable to null explicitly assigns
a “nothing” value. In fact, it is even possible to check whether a variable
refers to a null value.
▸Assigning the value null is not equivalent to not assigning it at all. In other
words, a variable that has been assigned null has still been set, whereas a
variable with no assignment has not been set and, therefore, will often
cause a compile error if used prior to assignment.
▸When we want to use a variable/reference that may be null, the nullable
modifier (?) can be used in such a situation.

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Fundamental Types
The void “Type”
▸Sometimes the C# syntax requires a data type to be specified, but no data
is passed.
- For example, if no return from a method is needed, C# allows you to specify void as
the data type instead.
▸The void is used to indicate the absence of a type or the absence of any
value altogether.
▸The use of void as the return type indicates that the method is not
returning any data and tells the compiler not to expect a value. void is not
a data type per se but rather an indication that there is no data being
returned.

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Conversions between Data Types
Introduction
▸Given the thousands of types predefined in .NET and the unlimited
number of types that code can define, it is important that types
support conversion from one type to another where it makes sense.
▸Consider the conversion between two numeric types: converting from a
variable of type long to a variable of type int.
- A long type can contain values as large as 9,223,372,036,854,775,808; however, the
maximum size of an int is 2,147,483,647.
- As such, that conversion could result in a loss of data—for example, if the variable of
type long contains a value greater than the maximum size of an int.
- Any conversion that could result in a loss of data (such as magnitude and/or
precision) or an exception because the conversion failed requires an explicit cast.
- Conversely, a numeric conversion that will not lose magnitude and will not throw an
exception regardless of the operand types is an implicit conversion.

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Conversions between Data Types
Implicit Conversion
▸In other instances, such as when going from an int type to a long type,
there is no loss of precision, and no fundamental change in the value of
the type occurs.
▸In these cases, the code needs to specify only the assignment operator;
the conversion is implicit. In other words, the compiler can determine that
such a conversion will work correctly.

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Conversions between Data Types
Explicit Cast
▸In C#, you cast using the cast operator.
▸By specifying the type, you would like the variable converted to within
parentheses, you acknowledge that if an explicit cast is occurring, there
may be a loss of precision and data, or an exception may result.
▸The code in Listing 2.26 converts a long to an int and explicitly tells the
system to attempt the operation.

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Conversions between Data Types
Explicit Cast - Checked and Unchecked Conversions
▸Give a situation

Which is your choice? Why?

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Conversions between Data Types
Type Conversion without Casting
▸No conversion is defined from a string to a numeric type, so methods such
as Parse() are required. Each numeric data type includes a Parse() function
that enables conversion from a string to the corresponding numeric type.

▸System.Convert supports only a small number of types and is not

extensible. It allows conversion from any of the types bool, char, sbyte,
short, int, long, ushort, uint, ulong, float, double, decimal, DateTime, and
string to any other of those types.
▸All types support a ToString() method that can be used to provide a string
representation of a type.

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Conversions between Data Types
Type Conversion without Casting – The TryParse method
▸All the numeric primitive types include a static TryParse() method.
▸This method is similar to the Parse() method, except that instead of
throwing an exception if the conversion fails, the TryParse() method
returns false.

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Exercises
▸The Celsius scale is centigrade, 100 divisions separate the freezing point
from the boiling point of water. On the Fahrenheit scale of Anglo-Saxons,
these two points are 180 degrees apart. The Kelvin scale is an absolute
scale used in science.
▸Create a C# program to convert from degrees Celsius to Kelvin and
Fahrenheit. Request the user the number of degrees celsius to convert
them using the following conversion tables:
- kelvin = celsius + 273
- fahrenheit = celsius x 18 / 10 + 32
- Input
• 33
- Output
• kelvin= 306
• fahrenheit= 91

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Exercises
▸Create a program in C# for calculate the surface and volume of a sphere, given its
radius.
- surface= 4 * pi * radius squared
- volume= 4 / 3 * pi * radius cubed
- Input
• 60
- Output
• Surface: 45238,93
• Volume: 678584,1
▸Write a program in C# that calculates the result of adding, subtracting,
multiplying and dividing two numbers entered by the user.
- In addition you should also calculate the rest of the division on the last line.
- Input
• 12
• 3
- Output
• 12 + 3 = 15
• 12 - 3 = 9
• 12 x 3 = 36
• 12 / 3 = 4
• 12 mod 3 = 0

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