C Pocket Reference

Integer Types

There are five signed integer types: signed char , short int (or short), int , long int (or long), and long long int ^(*) (or long long ^(*)). For each of these types there is a corresponding unsigned integer type with the same storage size. The unsigned type is designated by the prefix unsigned in the type specifier, as in unsigned int.

The types char , signed char, and unsigned char are formally different. Depending on the compiler settings, however, char is equivalent either to signed char or to unsigned char. The prefix signed has no meaning for the types short, int, long, and long long ^(*), however, since they are always considered to be signed. Thus short and signed short specify the same type.

The storage size of the integer types is not defined; however, their width is ranked in the following order: char <= short <= int <= long <= long long ^(*). Furthermore, the size of type short is at least 2 bytes, long at least 4 bytes, and long long at least 8 bytes. Their value ranges for a given implementation are found in the header file limits.h .

ANSI C99 also introduces the type _Bool to represent Boolean values. The Boolean value true is represented by 1 and false by 0. If the header file stdbool.h has been included, then bool can be used as a synonym for _Bool and the macros true and false for the integer constants 1 and 0. Table 1-3 shows the standard integer types together with some typical value ranges.

Table 1-3. Standard integer types with storage sizes ...