Primitive (computer science)

In computer science, primitive data type is either of the following:

In most programming languages, all basic data types are built-in. In addition, many languages also provide a set of composite data types. Opinions vary as to whether a built-in type that is composite should be considered "primitive".

Depending on the language and its implementation, primitive data types may or may not have a one-to-one correspondence with objects in the computer's memory. However, one usually expects operations on basic primitive data types to be the fastest language constructs there are. Integer addition, for example, can be performed as a single machine instruction, and some processors offer specific instructions to process sequences of characters with a single instruction. In particular, the C standard mentions that "a 'plain' int object has the natural size suggested by the architecture of the execution environment". This means that int is likely to be 32 bits long on a 32-bit architecture. Basic primitive types are almost always value types.

Most languages do not allow the behavior or capabilities of primitive (either built-in or basic) data types to be modified by programs. Exceptions include Smalltalk, which permits all data types to be extended within a program, adding to the operations that can be performed on them or even redefining the built-in operations.

The actual range of primitive data types that is available is dependent upon the specific programming language that is being used. For example, in C, strings are a composite but built-in data type, whereas in modern dialects of BASIC and in JavaScript, they are assimilated to a primitive data type that is both basic and built-in.

Classic basic primitive types may include:

More sophisticated types which can be built-in include:

An integer data type represents a range of mathematical integers. Integers may be either signed (allowing negative values) or unsigned (whole numbers only). Common ranges are:

Literals for integers can be written as regular Hindu-Arabic numerals, consisting of a sequence of digits and with negation indicated by a minus sign before the value. However, most programming languages disallow use of commas for digit grouping. Examples of integer literals are:

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