What is the need for long when int and long are both 4 bytes

[parag_paul]

hi All
I understand the need for long long , but what is the purpose of long
as a data type separately. Just makes the language intimidating to
start with, when you have to deal with so many data types.

 

[Kai-Uwe Bux]

Re: What is the need for long when int and long are both 4 bytes

Where did you get that idea? Neither are required to be 4 bytes, and they
are not required to span the same range. The requirements are:

int can represent all integers in the interval [INT_MIN, INT_MAX].

long can represent all integers in the interval [LONG_MIN, LONG_MAX].

Moreover, we have the following guarantees inherited from C:

INT_MIN <= -32767
INT_MAX >= 32767

LONG_MIN <= -2147483647
LONG_MAX >= 2147483647

hi All
I understand the need for long long , but what is the purpose of long
as a data type separately. Just makes the language intimidating to
start with, when you have to deal with so many data types.

The requirements for the type int are somewhat special. If you look at
short, long, long long, you will find that they more or less match your
expectations. However, the idea behind int is that it should be
the "natural" arithmetic type of the machine (i.e., it should be
represented by one word). Now, what that means is a little iffy, e.g., do
you think of processor registers or of memory and bus architecture; but
that was the idea: in the word of the standard [3.9.1/2]:

... Plain ints have the natural size suggested by the architecture of the
execution environment [39]; the other signed integer types are provided to
meet special needs.

[39]= that is, large enough to contain any value in the range of INT_MIN
and INT_MAX, as defined in the header <climits>.


Best

Kai-Uwe Bux

 

[Ian Collins]

hi All
I understand the need for long long , but what is the purpose of long
as a data type separately. Just makes the language intimidating to
start with, when you have to deal with so many data types.

Have you ever considered an 8 or 16 bit processor where int is 16 bits?
Or a 64 bit machine where int is 32 bits?

 

[Rolf Magnus]

hi All
I understand the need for long long ,

.... which doesn't exist in standard C++ ...

but what is the purpose of long as a data type separately.

You need it if you want to be sure to get a type that has at least 32
siginificant bits. int doesn't give you that guarantee.

 

[Jack Klein]

hi All
I understand the need for long long , but what is the purpose of long
as a data type separately. Just makes the language intimidating to
start with, when you have to deal with so many data types.

That's funny, I use an implementation where sizeof(int) is 1 and
sizeof(long) is 2. Are you sure your compiler isn't broken?

--
Jack Klein
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[dprody]

sizeof(char)

>That's funny, I use an implementation where sizeof(int) is 1 and
>sizeof(long) is 2. Are you sure your compiler isn't broken?


whats does sizeof(char) give on that compiler. most compilers i've seen the results of sizeof() are in bytes. and 1 byte is not large enough to meet the range required by the standard.