Data Types in C Programming

Name: Data Types in C Programming
Author: Mike McMillan

Understand how to make decisions in C programming code

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 3 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

Hi, this is Mike McMillan. In this lesson, we're going to be talking about the numeric data types in C. And I'm gonna limit the discussion to three major numeric data types. So let's talk about them. I'm gonna start a block comment and then will put the discussion inside those comments. The first numeric type is int, which stands for integer or whole numbers. So numbers like 2, 123, 5,476, those types of numbers are stored in the int data type. And again, int just stands for integer, but C uses the word int. The next data type is float which is used to store floating point numbers or numbers that have a decimal point in them. And this is for single precision accuracy. The limit of that will depend on the compiler that you're using, so I'm not gonna go into ranges or boundaries here, I'm just gonna say that the float data type is used for single precision numbers. There's also the double data type which is used for double precision numbers. In this course, we'll be working mostly with single precision numbers, so I'll be using the float data type almost exclusively, but understand that we can also use double when we need more precision. In the C++ world, which I also teach quite a bit, most programmers don't even bother with float, they just use double for almost everything. That's because we're not so much worried about memory anymore, so we're not worried about the size of data and how much memory we're using, which used to be a issue back in the day. A lot of C uses the float data type kind of as the default type for floating point numbers. So I'll be using float more than double. Although, like I said, if you use C++ much, you very rarely see float, and you almost always see double as the data type for floating point numbers. So that wraps up this discussion of the numeric data types that we'll be using in this course, let's review. For whole numbers, there's the data type int, for single precision floating point numbers, there's the data type float, and for double precision floating point numbers, there's the data type double. In the next lesson, I'm gonna talk about the char data type and a little bit about how strings are represented in C.

Beginner Provider : Mike McMillan 3 Lessons · 8m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Course Description

This Data Types course covers how to make decisions in C programs using the different types of If statements. All nontrivial programs need to be able to make decisions, such as how a payroll program decides how much to pay an employee based on the number of hours they worked. Making decisions is one of the key constructs of all programming languages, and is vital for problem-solving within your program.

These lessons first discuss how to create relational expressions to generate true and false values once inputs are submitted into your code. You will learn to implement the basic If statement, followed by the more commonly used If-else statement and the If-else If statement. Then we’ll proceed to the Switch statement, how it’s used for more structured decisions that only involve evaluated integral (whole number) data, and how to apply it in such situations.

What You'll Learn

Form and use relational expressions to generate true and false values from submitted inputs
Implement the basic If statement to make decisions in C programs
Apply the If-else and If-else If statement types for more common decision scenarios
Use the Switch statement to handle structured decisions involving integral (whole number) data
Differentiate between If statements and Switch statements and know when to use each
Work with C data types including numeric types, the char type, strings, and how C handles Boolean types

Key Takeaways

Making decisions is one of the key constructs of all programming languages and is vital for problem-solving within a program.
Relational expressions generate true and false values once inputs are submitted into your code.
C provides three If statement forms: the basic If statement, the more commonly used If-else statement, and the If-else If statement.
The Switch statement is used for more structured decisions that only involve evaluated integral (whole number) data.
All nontrivial programs need to be able to make decisions, such as a payroll program deciding pay based on hours worked.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this C programming course cover?

It covers how to make decisions in C programs using the different types of If statements, how to create relational expressions that generate true and false values, the basic If statement, the If-else and If-else If statements, and the Switch statement for structured decisions involving integral (whole number) data.

What is the difference between If statements and the Switch statement taught here?

The course teaches the three If statement types for making decisions from relational expressions, while the Switch statement is used for more structured decisions that only involve evaluated integral (whole number) data; you will learn to differentiate between them and when to use each.

What skills will I gain from this course?

The course builds skills in C (Programming Language), C Data Types, C-Based Programming Languages, Interactive C, Modular Programming in C, and Operators in C and C++.

What topics are included in the lessons?

The lessons cover The Numeric Data Types, the Char Data Type and Creating Strings, and How C Handles Boolean Types.

Why is learning to make decisions in C important?

All nontrivial programs need to make decisions, such as a payroll program deciding how much to pay an employee based on hours worked, and making decisions is one of the key constructs of all programming languages and vital for problem-solving within your program.