Datatypes used in C#, Free online C# Programming Tutorial...

Datatypes in C# are of two kinds:

1. Reference Types
2. Value Types

Value types include the built-in or the primitive data types plus enums and structs, while the reference types, like in Java and C++ are objects of a class and arrays.

As mentioned earlier, C# is a type-safe language. Variables can hold either value types or reference types, or they can be pointers. When a variable "a" is a value type, it directly contains the value and when it is a reference type, it contains a reference or address of the object lying somewhere in the heap area of the memory.

Built-in Types:
The following table lists the built-in C# types and their ranges:

C# Type	.Net Framework (System) type	Signed?	Bytes Occupied	Possible Values
sbyte	System.Sbyte	Yes	1	-128 to 127
short	System.Int16	Yes	2	-32768 to 32767
Int	System.Int32	Yes	4	-2147483648 to 2147483647
long	System.Int64	Yes	8	-9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807
byte	System.Byte	No	1	0 to 255
ushort	System.Uint16	No	2	0 to 65535
uint	System.UInt32	No	4	0 to 4294967295
ulong	System.Uint64	No	8	0 to 18446744073709551615
float	System.Single	Yes	4	Approximately ±1.5 x 10-45 to ±3.4 x 1038 with 7 significant figures
double	System.Double	Yes	8	Approximately ±5.0 x 10-324 to ±1.7 x 10308 with 15 or 16 significant figures
decimal	System.Decimal	Yes	12	Approximately ±1.0 x 10-28 to ±7.9 x 1028 with 28 or 29 significant figures
char	System.Char	N/A	2	Any Unicode character (16 bit)
bool	System.Boolean	N/A	N/A	true or false

We will continue our discussion on C# data types in the next lesson.

Next >>> Lesson No. 6: C# Datatypes 2