C Programming: Visual Quickstart Guide

Proper Variable Syntax

The overwhelming majority of data you'll work with will be in the form of variables (as opposed to constants, which you'll also learn about at the end of this chapter). To use a variable, you must first declare it—in other words, you state that a variable with a specific name will be of a certain type. The declaration statement looks like this:

					datatype variablename;

For example:

int age;
float cost;
char answer;

The different types are listed in Table 2.1, along with what version of C they are allowed in.

Table 2.1. The basic variable types for use in the C language and what standard they fall under.

C Data Types
Type	C Standard
int	All
long int	All
long long int	All
short int	All
unsigned	All
float	All
double	All
long double	All
char ...