I am transitioning from Java to C++ and have some questions about the long data type. In Java, to hold an integer greater than 232, you would simply write long x;. However, in C++, it seems that long is both a data type and a modifier.
There seems to be several ways to use long:
long x;
long long x;
long int x;
long long int x;
Also, it seems there are things such as:
long double x;
and so on.
What is the difference between all of these various data types, and do they all have the same purpose?
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long-integer
Historically, in early C times, when processors had 8 or 16 bit wordlength,intwas identical to todays short(16 bit). In a certain sense, int is a more abstract data type thanchar,short,longorlong long, as you cannot be sure about the bitwidth.
When definingint n;you could translate this with "give me the best compromise of bitwidth and speed on this machine for n". Maybe in the future you should expect compilers to translateintto be 64 bit. So when you want your variable to have 32 bits and not more, better use an explicitlongas data type.
[Edit: #include <stdint.h> seems to be the proper way to ensure bitwidths using the int##_t types, though it's not yet part of the standard.]
While in Java a long is always 64 bits, in C++ this depends on computer architecture and operating system. For example, a long is 64 bits on Linux and 32 bits on Windows (this was done to keep backwards-compatability, allowing 32-bit programs to compile on 64-bit Windows without any changes).
It is considered good C++ style to avoid short int long ... and instead use:
std::int8_t # exactly 8 bits
std::int16_t # exactly 16 bits
std::int32_t # exactly 32 bits
std::int64_t # exactly 64 bits
std::size_t # can hold all possible object sizes, used for indexing
These (int*_t) can be used after including the <cstdint> header. size_t is in <stdlib.h>.
Long and long int are at least 32 bits.
long long and long long int are at least 64 bits. You must be using a c99 compiler or better.
long doubles are a bit odd. Look them up on Wikipedia for details.
This looks confusing because you are taking long as a datatype itself.
long is nothing but just the shorthand for long int when you are using it alone.
long is a modifier, you can use it with double also as long double.
long == long int.
Both of them take 4 bytes.
long is equivalent to long int, just as short is equivalent to short int. A long int is a signed integral type that is at least 32 bits, while a long long or long long int is a signed integral type is at least 64 bits.
This doesn't necessarily mean that a long long is wider than a long. Many platforms / ABIs use the LP64 model - where long (and pointers) are 64 bits wide. Win64 uses the LLP64, where long is still 32 bits, and long long (and pointers) are 64 bits wide.
There's a good summary of 64-bit data models here.
long double doesn't guarantee much other than it will be at least as wide as a double.
Source: Stackoverflow.com