Primitive Data Types
1. Integer
Integer types can hold whole numbers such as 123 and −96. The size of the values that can be
stored depends on the integer type that we choose.
Type Size Range of values that can be stored
byte 1 byte −128 to 127
short 2 bytes −32768 to 32767
int 4 bytes −2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647
long 8 bytes 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to
9,223,372,036,854,755,807
The range of values is calculated as −(2n−1) to (2n−1)−1; where n is the number of bits required.
For example, the byte data type requires 1 byte = 8 bits. Therefore, the range of values that can
be stored in the byte data type is −(28−1) to (28−1)−1
= −27 to (27) -1
= −128 to 127
2. Floating Point
Floating point data types are used to represent numbers with a fractional part. Single precision
floating point numbers occupy 4 bytes and Double precision floating point numbers occupy 8
bytes. There are two subtypes:
Type Size Range of values that can be stored
float 4 bytes 3.4e−038 to 3.4e+038
double 8 bytes 1.7e−308 to 1.7e+038
3. Character
It stores character constants in the memory. It assumes a size of 2 bytes, but basically it can hold
only a single character because char stores unicode character sets. It has a minimum value of
‘u0000’ (or 0) and a maximum value of ‘uffff’ (or 65,535, inclusive).
4. Boolean
Boolean data types are used to store values with two states: true or false.
Credit: hps://www.sitepoint.com/beginning-java-data-types-variables-and-arrays/