Data Types Overview

A comprehensive set of flashcards covering the various data types and concepts discussed in Chapter 6 of the lecture notes.

Data Type

Defines a collection of data objects and a set of predefined operations on those objects.

Primitive Data Type

Data types that are not defined in terms of other data types; often reflect hardware.

Integer

A primitive data type often reflecting hardware; can have multiple sizes like byte, short, int, long.

Floating Point

A data type that models real numbers, typically as approximations (e.g., float, double).

Complex Type

A type that consists of two floating point numbers representing real and imaginary parts.

Boolean Type

A data type with two values: true and false; often implemented as bits or bytes.

Character Type

Numeric coding used to represent characters, typically using ASCII or Unicode.

Enumeration Type

A user-defined type consisting of a set of named constants.

Associative Array

An unordered collection of data elements indexed by keys.

Record Type

A collection of heterogeneous data elements identified by names.

Tuple Type

A data type similar to a record, but the elements are not named and it allows returning multiple values.

Pointer Type

A variable that stores memory addresses and is used for indirect addressing and dynamic memory management.

Optional Type

A type that indicates whether a variable has a value or is null.

Type Checking

The process of ensuring that the operands of an operator are compatible types.

Strong Typing

A characteristic of a programming language where type errors are always detected.

Array Type

A homogeneous collection of data elements identified by their position.

List Type

A collection of elements that can be of different types, typically structured without restrictions on their content.