Fundamentals of C++
Learn commonly used data types and operators in C++.
Data types in C++
Every variable in C++ needs to be declared with the help of a data type. For example, whether a variable can store only numbers or can also store other symbols as its value.
Common data types
The following are the commonly used data types in C++:
-
int
: Integer values (5
,0
,-1
, etc.) -
double
: Floating-point values (2.33333
,-2500.001
,20.0
, etc.) -
bool
: Boolean values (true
/1
,false
/0
) -
char
: Character value (a
,0
,$
, etc) -
string
: String values (educative
,c++
,k2
, etc.)
The bool
data type is used to store true
or false
, but whenever we display the Boolean values, true
is displayed as 1
and false
as 0
. In order to use the string
data type, we have to add #include <string>
at the start of the code.
Variable declaration
The C++ language requires the programmer to tell the data type of the variables used in a program. The following code demonstrates the declaration of variables to input their values with a suitable prompt and to display them with suitable labels:
#include <iostream> #include <string> using namespace std; int main() { string str; // Declaring a variable of type string int number; // Declaring a variable of type integer double real; // Declaring a variable of type double bool isTrue; // Declaring a variable of type bool char letter; // Declaring a variable of type char cout << "Please input a word: "; cin >> str; cout << "Please input an integer: "; cin >> number; cout << "Please input a real number: "; cin >> real; cout << "Please input 0 or 1 [0 for false, 1 for true]: "; cin >> isTrue; cout << "Please input a letter: "; cin >> letter; cout << "The value of each variable is enclosed in brackets:" << std::endl; cout << "str (" << str << ")" << endl; cout << "number (" << number << ")" << endl; cout << "real number (" << real << ")" << endl; cout << "isTrue (" << isTrue << ")" << endl; cout << "letter (" << letter << ")" << endl; return 0; }
Note: We don’t use
<
and>
withstring
other than#include
because it’s a data type. Thestring
at line 2 is the name of the file that defines thestring
data type.
Explanation
- Line 7–11: We declare the variables so they can be used to store the values input by the user. There are different types of variables that are declared:
str
is a variable of thestring
type.number
is a variable of theint
type.fraction
is a variable of thedouble
type.isTrue
is a variable of thebool
type.letter
is a variable of thechar
type.
- Line 13–22: We output a prompt using
cout
and demand input from the user usingcin
and then store them in the relevant variable. - Line 24–28: We output the variable