In C# programming language, Data Types are used to define a type of data the variable can hold such as integer, float, string, etc. in our application.
C# is a Strongly Typed programming language so before we perform any operation on variables, it’s mandatory to define a variable with required data type to indicate what type of data that variable can hold in our application.
Following is the syntax of defining a data types in c# programming language.
[Data Type] [Variable Name];
[Data Type] [Variable Name] = [Value];
If you observe above syntax, we added a required data type before the variable name to tell the compiler about what type of data the variable can hold or which data type the variable belongs to.
[Data Type] - It’s a type of data the variable can hold such as integer, string, decimal, etc.
[Variable Name] - It’s a name of the variable to hold the values in our application.
[Value] - Assigning a required value to the variable.
Now we will see how to use the Data Types in our c# applications with examples.
Following is the example of using the data types in c# programming language.
namespace Tutlane
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
int number = 10;
string name = "Suresh Dasari";
double percentage = 10.23;
char gender = 'M';
bool isVerified = true;
}
}
}
If you observe above c# data types example, we defined a multiple variables with different data types based on our requirements.
In C# programming language, we have a 3 different type of data types, those are
| Type | Data Types |
|---|---|
| Value Data Type | int, bool, char, double, float, etc. |
| Reference Data Type | string, class, object, interface, delegate, etc. |
| Pointer Data Type | Pointers. |
Following diagram will illustrate more detail about different data types in c# programming language.
In c#, the Value Data Types will directly store the variable value in memory. In c#, the value data types will accept both signed and unsigned literals.
Following table lists the value data types in c# programming language with memory size and range of values.
| Data Type | .NET Type | Size | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| byte | Byte | 8 bits | 0 to 255 |
| sbyte | SByte | 8 bits | -128 to 127 |
| int | Int32 | 32 bits | -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 |
| uint | UInt32 | 32 bits | 0 to 4294967295 |
| short | Int16 | 16 bits | -32,768 to 32,767 |
| ushort | UInt16 | 16 bits | 0 to 65,535 |
| long | Int64 | 64 bits | -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 |
| ulong | UInt64 | 64 bits | 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 |
| float | Single | 32 bits | -3.402823e38 to 3.402823e38 |
| double | Double | 64 bits | -1.79769313486232e308 to 1.79769313486232e308 |
| bool | Boolean | 8 bits | True or False |
| decimal | Decimal | 128 bits | (+ or -)1.0 x 10e-28 to 7.9 x 10e28 |
| DateTime | DateTime | - | 0:00:00am 1/1/01 to 11:59:59pm 12/31/9999 |
In c#, the Reference Data Types will contain a memory address of variable value because the reference types won’t store the variable value directly in memory.
Following table lists the reference data types in c# programming language with memory size and range of values.
| Data Type | .NET Type | Size | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| string | String | Variable Length | 0 to 2 billion Unicode characters |
| object | Object | - | - |
In c#, the Pointer Data Types will contain a memory address of variable value. To get the pointer details we have a two symbols ampersand (&) and asterisk (*) in c# language.
Following is the syntax of declaring the pointer type in c# programming language.
type* test;
Following is the example of defining the pointer type in c# programming language.
int* a;
int* b;
Following table lists the detail about different type pointer symbols available in c# programming language.
| Symbol | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| & | Address Operator | It's useful to determine the address of a variable. |
| * | Indirection Operator | It's useful to access the value of an address. |
This is how we can use the data types in c# applications based on our requirements.