A data type is a type of information that can be manipulated and processed by a programming language. Data types include numerical information, such as the amount of hit points a video game character has, to "text" (string) information such as the character's name.

At the processor level, all data is the same —- simple bytes. The actual data type is constructed using assembly language.

Data Type Sign

Some BASIC variants, such as PlayBasic, require that variables and arrays have a data type sign which determines their data type. These are :

• $ - string
• # - floating point number

An integer variable or array is not usually required to have a data type sign.

playerName$ = "Dave Ahl"
playerMoney = 100000

Explicit Data Type

Other BASIC dialects allow you to explicitly declare a variable's data type when you DIM the variable and therefore a data type sign is not needed. One example of a programming language that allows this is FreeBASIC.

dim playerName as string
dim playerMoney as integer
playerName = "Bob Albrecht"
playerMoney = 100000

Related Pages

• Float
• Integer
• Precision
• String

Links

• Data Types at the PlayBasic Wiki
• Data Types at the thinBasic Wiki