22 Aug  Admin

Each variable in C has an associated data type. Each data type requires different amounts of memory and has some specific operations which can be performed over it.Each variable in C has an associated data type. Each data type requires different amounts of memory and has some specific operations which can be performed over it.

Every C compiler supports five primary data types:

void	As the name suggests, it holds no value and is generally used for specifying the type of function or what it returns. If the function has a void type, it means that the function will not return any value.
int	Used to denote an integer type.
char	Used to denote a character type.
float, double	Used to denote a floating point type.
int *, float *, char *	Used to denote a pointer type.

Derived Data Types

C supports three derived data types:

Data Types	Description
Arrays	Arrays are sequences of data items having homogeneous values. They have adjacent memory locations to store values.
References	Function pointers allow referencing functions with a particular signature.
Pointers	These are powerful C features which are used to access the memory and deal with their addresses.

User defined data type

C allows the feature called type definition which allows programmers to define their identifier that would represent an existing data type. There are three such types:

Data Types	Description
Structure	It is a package of variables of different types under a single name. This is done to handle data efficiently. “struct” keyword is used to define a structure.
Union	These allow storing various data types in the same memory location. Programmers can define a union with different members, but only a single member can contain a value at a given time. It is used for
Enum	Enumeration is a special data type that consists of integral constants, and each of them is assigned with a specific name. “enum” keyword is used to define the enumerated data type.