CHAPTER 6

DATA TYPES

Spring 2022
 Introducti
on
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 A data type:
= a collection of data objects + a set of
predefined operations

 The design issues

 How to represent data objects?
 What operations are defined and how are they
specified?

 A descriptor is the collection of the

attributes of an object
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 Descriptor
3 A descriptor is the collection of the attributes of a
variable. In
an implementation, a descriptor is an area of
memory that stores the attributes of a variable.

If the attributes are all static, descriptors are

required only at
compile time. These descriptors are built by the
compiler, usually as a part of the symbol table, and
are used during compilation.

For dynamic attributes, however, part or all of the

descriptor must be maintained during execution. In
this case, the descriptor is used by the run-time
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 Primitive Data
Types
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 Primitive data types

 Those not defined in terms of other data
types

 Almost all programming languages provide

a set of primitive data types

 Some primitive data types are merely

reflections of the hardware;
others require little non-hardware support
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 Primitive Data Types:
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Integer
 Almost always an exact reflection of the hardware so the mapping is trivial
Example:
Java’s signed integer sizes:
byte(The byte data type is an 8-bit signed two's complement integer. It has
a minimum value of -128 and a maximum value of 127 (inclusive). ),
Short(The short data type is a 16-bit signed two's complement integer. It
has a minimum value of -32,768 and a maximum value of 32,767
(inclusive),
Int(By default, the int data type is a 32-bit signed two's complement
integer, which has a minimum value of -2 31 and a maximum value of 231-
1.),
Long( The long data type is a 64-bit two's complement integer. The signed
long has a minimum value of -263 and a maximum value of 263-1).

 A signed integer value is represented in a computer by a string of bits, with

one of the bits (typically the leftmost) representing the sign. Most integer
types
are supported directly by the hardware.
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 Primitive Data Types:
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Floating Point
 Model real numbers, but only as
approximations
 Languages for scientific use support at
least two floating-point types
 float and double
 IEEE Floating-Point Standard

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 Primitive Data Types:
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Decimal
 For business applications (money)
 Essential to COBOL
 C# offers a decimal data type
 The decimal keyword indicates a 128-bit
data type. Compared to floating-point types,
the decimal type is appropriate for financial
and monetary calculations.
 Evaluation:
 Advantage: accurate computation in range
 Comparing to floating point number
 Disadvantages: limited range, wastes memory
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 Decimal Example
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 C#
public class TestDecimal
{ static void Main()
{ decimal d = 9.1m;
int y = 3;
Console.WriteLine(d + y);
// Result converted to decimal
}
} // Output: 12.1
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 Primitive Data Types:
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Boolean
 Simplest of all
 Range of values: two elements
 one for “true” and one for “false”
 Could be implemented as bits, but often
as bytes
 Advantage: readability

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 Primitive Data Types:
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Character
 Stored as numeric codings
 Most commonly used coding: ASCII
 American Standard Code for Information Interchange

 An alternative, 16-bit coding: Unicode

 Includes characters from most natural
languages
 Originally used in Java
 C# and JavaScript also support Unicode

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 Character String Types
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 A character string type is one in which the
values consist of sequences of characters.
Character string constants are used to label
output, and the input and output of all kinds of
data are often done in terms of strings. Of
course, character strings also are an essential
type for all programs that do character
manipulation.
 Design issues:
 Is it a primitive type or just a special kind of
array?
 Should the length of strings be static or dynamic?
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 Character String Types
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Operations
Typical operations:
 Assignment and copying
 Comparison (=, >, etc.)
 Catenation
 Substring reference (A substring reference is a
reference to a substring of a given string.)
 Pattern matching (Pattern matching is another
fundamental character string operation. In
some
languages, pattern matching is supported
directly in the language. In others, it is
provided by a function or class library.)
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 Character String Type in Certain
Languages
13  C and C++
 Not primitive
 Use char arrays and a library of functions
 strcpy(src, dest) may cause buffer overflow problem
 Java
 String class: primitive type
 StringBuffer class: changeable/mutable

Which one is more efficient? …. A popular interview question

String str1 = new String(“hello,”); str1 += “the world”;
StringBuffer str1 = new StringBuffer (“hello,”);
str1.apend(“the world”);
Using a StringBuffer for concatenation can in fact produce code
that is significantly faster than using a String.
What is the difference from StringBuilder? This class is designed for
use as a drop-in replacement for StringBuffer in places where the
string buffer was being used by a single thread (as is generally the
case). Where possible, it is recommended that this class be used in
preference to StringBuffer as it will be faster under most
implementations.
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 Character String Length
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Options
 Three options:
 Static: (the length can be static and set when the
string is created. Such a string is called a static
length string.) COBOL, Java’s String class
 Limited Dynamic Length: allow strings to have
varying length up to a declared and fixed maximum
set by the variable’s definition, as exemplified by
the strings in C and the C-style strings of C++.
These are called limited dynamic length strings.
 In C-based language, a special character is used to
indicate the end of a string’s characters, rather than
maintaining the length
 Dynamic (no maximum): SNOBOL4, Perl, JavaScript

 Ada supports all three string length options

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 Character String
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Implementation
 Static length: compile-time descriptor
 Limited dynamic length: may need a run-time
descriptor for length (but not in C and C++)
 Dynamic length: need run-time descriptor;
allocation/de-allocation is the biggest
implementation problem

Compile-time descriptor Run-time descriptor for

for static strings limited dynamic strings

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 User-Defined Ordinal Types
16
 An ordinal type is one in which the range of possible
values can be easily associated with the set of positive
integers
 an ordinal data type is a data type with the property
that its values can be counted. That is, the values can
be put in a one-to-one correspondence with the
positive integers.
For example, characters are ordinal because we can
call 'A' the first character, 'B' the second, etc.
 Examples: primitive ordinal types in Java
 integer
 char
 Boolean
There are two user-defined ordinal types that have been supported by
programming languages: enumeration and
IUBAT subrange.
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 Enumeration
Types
17

 All possible values, which are named constants,

are provided in the definition.
 Enumeration types provide a way of defining
and grouping collections of named constants,
which are called enumeration constants.

C# example
enum days {mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat, sun};

 No arithmetic operations are legal on enumeration

types
days d1, d2; d1 + d2 =?
 No enumeration type variables are not implemented
into integer types
days d1; d1 = 4; ?
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 Subrange
Types
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 An ordered contiguous subsequence of an

ordinal type
Example: 12..18 is a subrange of integer type

 Ada’s design
type Days is (mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat, sun);
subtype Weekdays is Days range mon..fri;
subtype Index is Integer range 1..100;

Day1: Days;
Day2: Weekday;
Day2 := Day1;
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 Array
Types
19

 An array is an aggregate of homogeneous

data elements in which an individual
element is identified by its position in the
aggregate, relative to the first element.
Example: int a[100];
 Design issues
 What types are legal for subscripts?
 When are subscript ranges bound?
 When does allocation take place?
 What is the maximum number of subscripts?

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 Array
Indexing
20

 Indexing or subscripting
 Mapping from indices to elements
a(index_value)  an element
 Syntax:
FORTRAN, PL/I, Ada use parentheses, others use brackets
 Index Types
 Integer type only: Fortran, C, Java
 Any ordinal type: Pascal
 Integer or enum: Ada
 Index range check
 No: C, C++, Perl, Fortran
 Yes: Java, ML, C#

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 Array
Categories
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 Determined by the binding of the subscript

type to an array element
int a[?];

 Static: subscript ranges are statically

bound and storage allocation is static
(before run-time)
 Advantage: efficiency (no dynamic allocation)
func1()
{
static int a[100]; …
}
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 Array
Categories
22

 Fixed stack-dynamic:
 Subscript ranges are statically bound, but
 The allocation is done at declaration elaboration time during execution
 Advantage: space efficiency
 Stack-dynamic:
 Subscript ranges are dynamically bound, and
 The storage allocation is dynamic (done at run-time)
 Advantage: flexibility (the size of an array need not be known until the array
is to be used)
 Fixed heap-dynamic:
 storage binding is dynamic but fixed after allocation (i.e., binding is done
when requested and storage is allocated from heap, not stack)
 Heap-dynamic:
 binding of subscript ranges and storage allocation is dynamic and can
change any number of times

Advantage: flexibility (arrays can grow or shrink during program execution)

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 Array
Initialization
23

 Some language allow initialization at the

time of storage allocation
 C, C++, Java, C# example
int list [] = {4, 5, 7, 83}
 Character strings in C and C++

char name [] = “freddie”;

 Arrays of strings in C and C++

char *names [] = {“Bob”, “Jake”, “Joe”];

 Java initialization of String objects

String[] names = {“Bob”, “Jake”, “Joe”};

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 Record
Types
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 A record is a possibly heterogeneous

aggregate of data elements in which the
individual elements are identified by
names
 Introduced by COBOL in 1960s
 Syntax
COBOL 01 EMP-REC.
02 EMP-NAME.
05 FIRST PIC X(20).
05 MID PIC X(10).
05 LAST PIC X(20).
02 HOURLY-RATE PIC 99V99.
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 Evaluati
on
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 Straight forward and safe design

 Comparison to Arrays
 Access to array elements is much slower
than access to record fields, because
subscripts are dynamic (field names are
static)
a[i] and b.field1

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 Implementati
on
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Offset address relative to

the beginning of the
records is associated with
each field

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 Unions
Types
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 A union is a type
 whose variables are allowed to store
different type values at different times
during execution
 Design issues
 Should type checking be required?
 Should unions be embedded in records?

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 Evaluation of
Unions
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 Potentially unsafe construct

 Do not allow type checking

 Java and C# do not support unions

 Reflective of growing concerns for safety in
programming language

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 Strongly Typed
Languages
29

 A programming language is strongly

typed if type errors are always detected

 How to perform type checking ?

 If all type bindings are static, nearly all type
checking can be static
 If type bindings are dynamic, type checking
must be dynamic
 Type checking is the activity of ensuring that the
operands of an operator are of compatible types
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 Pointer and Reference
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Types
 A pointer type variable has a range of values
that consists of memory addresses and a
special value, nil
 One address value
 An address tuple (segment, offset)

 The use of pointers

 Support indirect addressing
 Manage dynamic memory
 Access a location in heap
 The variable that stores the address of
another variable is what in C++ is called
a pointer
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 Pointer
Operations
31
 Two fundamental operations
 Assignment
 set
a pointer variable’s value to some useful
address
 Dereferencing
 yields
the value stored at the location
represented by the pointer’s value

 Dereferencing can be explicit

or implicit
 C/C++ use an explicit operator “*”
j = * ptr
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 Pointers in C and
C++
32

 Extremely flexible but must be used with

care
 Pointers can point at any variable
 Pointer arithmetic is possible
 Explicit dereferencing and address-of operators
 Support dynamic storage management and addressing

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