Type int
The size of a signed int
or unsigned int
item is the standard size of an integer on a particular machine. For example, in 16-bit operating systems, the int
type is usually 16 bits, or 2 bytes. In 32-bit operating systems, the int
type is usually 32 bits, or 4 bytes. Thus, the int
type is equivalent to either the short int
or the long int
type, and the unsigned int
type is equivalent to either the unsigned short
or the unsigned long
type, depending on the target environment. The int
types all represent signed values unless specified otherwise.
The type specifiers int
and unsigned int
(or simply unsigned
) define certain features of the C language (for instance, the enum
type). In these cases, the definitions of int
and unsigned int
for a particular implementation determine the actual storage.
Microsoft Specific
Signed integers are represented in two's-complement form. The most-significant bit holds the sign: 1 for negative, 0 for positive and zero. The range of values is given in C and C++ Integer Limits, which is taken from the LIMITS.H header file.
END Microsoft Specific
Note
The int
and unsigned int
type specifiers are widely used in C programs because they allow a particular machine to handle integer values in the most efficient way for that machine. However, since the sizes of the int
and unsigned int
types vary, programs that depend on a specific int
size may not be portable to other machines. To make programs more portable, you can use expressions with the sizeof
operator (as discussed in The sizeof
Operator) instead of hard-coded data sizes.
See also
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