Software II: Principles of

Programming Languages
Lecture 6 – Data Types

Some Basic Definitions

• A data type defines a collection of data objects
and a set of predefined operations on those
objects
• A descriptor is the collection of the attributes of
a variable
• An object represents an instance of a user-
defined (abstract data) type
• One design issue for all data types: What
operations are defined and how are they
specified?
 Primitive Data Types
• Almost all programming languages provide
a set of primitive data types
• Primitive data types: Those not defined in
terms of other data types
• Some primitive data types are merely
reflections of the hardware
• Others require only a little non-hardware
support for their implementation

The Integer Data Type

• Almost always an exact reflection of the
hardware so the mapping is trivial
• There may be as many as eight different
integer types in a language
• Java’s signed integer sizes: byte, short,
int, long
 The Floating Point Data Type
• Model real numbers, but only as approximations
• Languages for scientific use support at least two
floating-point types (e.g., float and double;
sometimes more
• Usually exactly like the hardware, but not always
• IEEE Floating-Point
Standard 754

Complex Data Type

• Some languages support a complex type,
e.g., C99, Fortran, and Python
• Each value consists of two floats, the real
part and the imaginary part
• Literal form real component

– (in Fortran: (7, 3)

imaginary
– (in Python): (7 + 3j) component
 The Decimal Data Type
• For business applications (money)
• Essential to COBOL
• C# offers a decimal data type
• Store a fixed number of decimal digits, in
coded form (BCD)
– Advantage: accuracy
– Disadvantages: limited range, wastes memory

The Boolean DataType

• Simplest of all
• Range of values: two elements, one for
true and one for false
• Could be implemented as bits, but often as
bytes
• Advantage: readability
 The Character Data Type
• Stored as numeric codings
• Most commonly used coding: ASCII
• An alternative, 16-bit coding: Unicode (UCS-2)
– Includes characters from most natural languages
– Originally used in Java
– C# and JavaScript also support Unicode
• 32-bit Unicode (UCS-4)
– Supported by Fortran, starting with 2003

Character String Types

• Values are sequences of characters
• Design issues:
• Is it a primitive type or just a special kind of
array?
• Should the length of strings be static or
dynamic?
 Character String Types
Operations
• Typical operations:
– Assignment and copying
– Comparison (=, >, etc.)
– Catenation
– Substring reference
– Pattern matching

Character String Type in Certain

Languages
• C and C++
– Not primitive
– Use char arrays and a library of functions that
provide operations
• SNOBOL4 (a string manipulation language)
– Primitive
– Many operations, including elaborate pattern
matching
 Character String Type in Certain
Languages
• Fortran and Python
– Primitive type with assignment and several
operations
• Java
– Primitive via the String class
• Perl, JavaScript, Ruby, and PHP
– Provide built-in pattern matching, using regular
expressions

Character String Length Options

• Static: COBOL, Java’s String class
• Limited Dynamic Length: C and C++
– In these languages, a special character is used
to indicate the end of a string’s characters,
rather than maintaining the length
• Dynamic (no maximum): SNOBOL4, Perl,
JavaScript
• Ada supports all three string length options
Character String Type Evaluation
• Aid to writability
• As a primitive type with static length, they
are inexpensive to provide--why not have
them?
• Dynamic length is nice, but is it worth the
expense?

Character String Type Evaluation

• Aid to writability
• As a primitive type with static length, they
are inexpensive to provide--why not have
them?
• Dynamic length is nice, but is it worth the
expense?
Character String Implementation
• Static length: compile-time descriptor
• Limited dynamic length: may need a run-
time descriptor for length (but not in C and
C++)
• Dynamic length: need run-time descriptor;
allocation/deallocation is the biggest
implementation problem

Compile- and Run-Time

Descriptors

Compile-time Run-time descriptor

descriptor for for limited dynamic
static strings strings
 User-Defined Ordinal Types
• An ordinal type is one in which the range of
possible values can be easily associated
with the set of positive integers
• Examples of primitive ordinal types in Java
– integer
– char
– boolean

Enumeration Types
• All possible values, which are named
constants, are provided in the definition
• C# example
– enum days {mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat, sun};
 Enumeration Types
• Design issues
– Is an enumeration constant allowed to appear in
more than one type definition, and if so, how is
the type of an occurrence of that constant
checked?
– Are enumeration values coerced to integer?
– Any other type coerced to an enumeration type?

Design issues
• Is an enumeration constant allowed to
appear in more than one type definition, and
if so, how is the type of an occurrence of
that constant checked?
• Are enumeration values coerced to integer?
• Any other type coerced to an enumeration
type?
 Evaluation of Enumerated Type

• Aid to readability, e.g., no need to code a color as

a number
• Aid to reliability, e.g., compiler can check:
– operations (don’t allow colors to be added)
– No enumeration variable can be assigned a value
outside its defined range
– Ada, C#, and Java 5.0 provide better support for
enumeration than C++ because enumeration type
variables in these languages are not coerced into integer
types

Subrange Types
• An ordered contiguous subsequence of an
ordinal type
– Example: 12..18 is a subrange of integer type
• Ada’s design
type Days is (mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat,
sun);
subtype Weekdays is Days range mon..fri;
subtype Index is Integer range 1..100;

Day1: Days;
Day2: Weekday;
Day2 := Day1;
 Subrange Evaluation
• Aid to readability
– Make it clear to the readers that variables of
subrange can store only certain range of values
• Reliability
– Assigning a value to a subrange variable that is
outside the specified range is detected as an
error

Implementation of User-Defined
Ordinal Types
• Enumeration types are implemented as
integers
• Subrange types are implemented like the
parent types with code inserted (by the
compiler) to restrict assignments to
subrange variables
 Array Types
• An array is a homogeneous aggregate of
data elements in which an individual
element is identified by its position in the
aggregate, relative to the first element.

Array Design Issues

• What types are legal for subscripts?
• Are subscripting expressions in element
references range checked?
• When are subscript ranges bound?
• When does allocation take place?
 Array Design Issues
• Are ragged or rectangular multidimensional
arrays allowed, or both?
• What is the maximum number of
subscripts?
• Can array objects be initialized?
• Are any kind of slices supported?

Array Indexing
• Indexing (or subscripting) is a mapping
from indices to elements
array_name (index_value_list) → an element

• Index Syntax
– Fortran and Ada use parentheses
• Ada explicitly uses parentheses to show uniformity
between array references and function calls because
both are mappings
– Most other languages use brackets
 Arrays Index (Subscript) Types
• FORTRAN, C: integer only
• Ada: integer or enumeration (includes
Boolean and char)
• Java: integer types only

Index range checking

• C, C++, Perl, and Fortran do not specify
range checking
• Java, ML, C# specify range checking
• In Ada, the default is to require range
• checking, but it can be turned off
 Subscript Binding and Array
Categories
• Static: subscript ranges are statically bound
and storage allocation is static (before run-
time)
– Advantage: efficiency (no dynamic allocation)
• Fixed stack-dynamic: subscript ranges are
statically bound, but the allocation is done
at declaration time
– Advantage: space efficiency

Subscript Binding and Array

Categories (continued)
• Stack-dynamic: subscript ranges are dynamically
bound and the storage allocation is dynamic (done
at run-time)
– Advantage: flexibility (the size of an array need not be
known until the array is to be used)
• Fixed heap-dynamic: similar to fixed stack-
dynamic: storage binding is dynamic but fixed
after allocation (i.e., binding is done when
requested and storage is allocated from heap, not
stack)
 Subscript Binding and Array
Categories (continued)
• Heap-dynamic: binding of subscript ranges
and storage allocation is dynamic and can
change any number of times
– Advantage: flexibility (arrays can grow or
shrink during program execution)

Subscript Binding and Array

Categories (continued)
• C and C++ arrays that include static modifier are
static
• C and C++ arrays without static modifier are
fixed stack-dynamic
• C and C++ provide fixed heap-dynamic arrays
• C# includes a second array class ArrayList that
provides fixed heap-dynamic
• Perl, JavaScript, Python, and Ruby support heap-
dynamic arrays
 Array Initialization
• Some language allow initialization at the
time of storage allocation
– C, C++, Java, C# example
int list [] = {4, 5, 7, 83}

– Character strings in C and C++

char name [] = ″freddie″;

– Arrays of strings in C and C++

char *names [] = {″Bob″, ″Jake″, ″Joe″];

– Java initialization of String objects

String[] names = {″Bob″, ″Jake″, ″Joe″};

Heterogeneous Arrays
• A heterogeneous array is one in which the
elements need not be of the same type
• Supported by Perl, Python, JavaScript, and
Ruby
 Array Initialization
• C-based languages
– int list [] = {1, 3, 5, 7}
– char *names [] = {″Mike″, ″Fred″, ″Mary
Lou″};

• Ada
– List : array (1..5) of Integer :=
(1 => 17, 3 => 34, others => 0);

Array Initialization
• Python
– List comprehensions
list = [x ** 2 for x in range(12) if x % 3 == 0]
puts [0, 9, 36, 81] in list
 Arrays Operations
• APL provides the most powerful array processing
operations for vectors and matrixes as well as unary
operators (for example, to reverse column elements)
• Ada allows array assignment but also catenation
• Python’s array assignments, but they are only reference
changes. Python also supports array catenation and
element membership operations
• Ruby also provides array catenation
• Fortran provides elemental operations because they are
between pairs of array elements
– For example, + operator between two arrays results in an array of
the sums of the element pairs of the two arrays

Evaluation and Comparison to Arrays

• Records are used when collection of data values is

heterogeneous
• Access to array elements is much slower than
access to record fields, because subscripts are
dynamic (field names are static)
• Dynamic subscripts could be used with record
field access, but it would disallow type checking
and it would be much slower
 Rectangular and Jagged Arrays
• A rectangular array is a multi-dimensioned
array in which all of the rows have the same
number of elements and all columns have
the same number of elements
• A jagged matrix has rows with varying
number of elements
– Possible when multi-dimensioned arrays
actually appear as arrays of arrays

Rectangular and Jagged Arrays

• C, C++, and Java support jagged arrays
• Fortran, Ada, and C# support rectangular
arrays (C# also supports jagged arrays)
 Slices
• A slice is some substructure of an array;
nothing more than a referencing mechanism
• Slices are only useful in languages that have
array operations

Slice Examples
• Python
vector = [2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16]
mat = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9]]

– vector (3:6) is a three-element array

– mat[0][0:2] is the first and second element of
the first row of mat
• Ruby supports slices with the slice method
– list.slice(2, 2) returns the third and fourth
elements of list
 Implementation of Arrays
• Access function maps subscript expressions
to an address in the array
• Access function for single-dimensioned
arrays:
address(list[k]) = address (list[lower_bound])
+ ((k-lower_bound) * element_size)

Accessing Multi-dimensioned
Arrays
• Two common ways:
– Row major order (by rows) – used in most languages
– Column major order (by columns) – used in Fortran
– A compile-time descriptor
for a multidimensional
array
 Locating an Element in a Multi-
dimensioned Array
• General format
– Location (a[I,j]) = address of a [row_lb,col_lb]
+ (((I - row_lb) * n)
+ (j - col_lb)) * element_size

Compile-Time Descriptors

Single-dimensioned array Multidimensional array

 Associative Arrays
• An associative array is an unordered
collection of data elements that are
indexed by an equal number of values
called keys
– User-defined keys must be stored

Associative Arrays
• Design issues:
- What is the form of references to elements?
- Is the size static or dynamic?
• Built-in type in Perl, Python, Ruby, and
Lua
– In Lua, they are supported by tables
 Associative Arrays in Perl
• Names begin with %; literals are
delimited by parentheses
%hi_temps = ("Mon" => 77, "Tue" => 79, "Wed"
=> 65, …);

• Subscripting is done using braces and keys

$hi_temps{"Wed"} = 83;

– Elements can be removed with delete

delete $hi_temps{"Tue"};

Record Types
• A record is a possibly heterogeneous
aggregate of data elements in which the
individual elements are identified by names
• Design issues:
– What is the syntactic form of references to the
field?
– Are elliptical references allowed
Definition of Records in COBOL
• COBOL uses level numbers to show nested
records; others use recursive definition
01 EMP-REC.
02 EMP-NAME.
05 FIRST PIC X(20).
05 MID PIC X(10).
05 LAST PIC X(20).
02 HOURLY-RATE PIC 99V99.

Definition of Records in Ada

• Record structures are indicated in an
orthogonal way
type Emp_Rec_Type is record
First: String (1..20);
Mid: String (1..10);
Last: String (1..20);
Hourly_Rate: Float;
end record;
Emp_Rec: Emp_Rec_Type;
 References to Records
• Record field references
1. COBOL
field_name OF record_name_1 OF ... OF record_name_n
2. Others (dot notation)
record_name_1.record_name_2. ...
record_name_n.field_name
• Fully qualified references must include all record
names

Elliptical References
• Elliptical references allow leaving out record
names as long as the reference is unambiguous,
for example in COBOL
FIRST, FIRST OF EMP-NAME, and FIRST
of EMP-REC are elliptical references to the
employee’s first name
 Operations on Records
• Assignment is very common if the types are
identical
• Ada allows record comparison
• Ada records can be initialized with
aggregate literals
• COBOL provides MOVE CORRESPONDING
– Copies a field of the source record to the
corresponding field in the target record

Evaluation and Comparison to

Arrays
• Records are used when collection of data
values is heterogeneous
• Access to array elements is much slower
than access to record fields, because
subscripts are dynamic (field names are
static)
• Dynamic subscripts could be used with
record field access, but it would disallow
type checking and it would be much slower
 Implementation of Record Type

Offset address relative to the

beginning of the records is
associated with each field

Tuple Types
• A tuple is a data type that is similar to a
record, except that the elements are not
named
 Tuple Types
• Used in Python, ML, and F# to allow
functions to return multiple values
– Python
• Closely related to its lists, but immutable
• Create with a tuple literal
myTuple = (3, 5.8, ′apple′)
Referenced with subscripts (begin at 1)
Catenation with + and deleted with del

Tuple Types in Python

• Closely related to its lists, but immutable
• Create with a tuple literal
myTuple = (3, 5.8, ′apple′)
• Referenced with subscripts (begin at 1)
• Catenation with + and deleted with del
 Tuple Types in ML
Given
val myTuple = (3, 5.8, ′apple′);
Access as follows:
#1(myTuple) is the first element
A new tuple type can be defined
type intReal = int * real;

Tuple Types in F#
let tup = (3, 5, 7)
let a, b, c = tup
This assigns a tuple to a tuple pattern
(a, b, c)
 List Types

• Lists in LISP and Scheme are delimited by

parentheses and use no commas
(A B C D) and (A (B C) D)

• Data and code have the same form

As data, (A B C) is literally what it is
As code, (A B C) is the function A applied to the
parameters B and C
• The interpreter needs to know which a list is, so if
it is data, we quote it with an apostrophe
′(A B C) is data

List Operations in Scheme

• CAR returns the first element of its list parameter
(CAR ′(A B C)) returns A
• CDR returns the remainder of its list parameter
after the first element has been removed
(CDR ′(A B C)) returns (B C)
• CONS puts its first parameter into its second
parameter, a list, to make a new list
(CONS ′A (B C)) returns (A B C)
• LIST returns a new list of its parameters
(LIST ′A ′B ′(C D)) returns (A B (C D))
 List Operations in ML
• Lists are written in brackets and the elements are
separated by commas
• List elements must be of the same type
• The Scheme CONS function is a binary operator in
ML, ::
3 :: [5, 7, 9] evaluates to [3, 5, 7, 9]
• The Scheme CAR and CDR functions are
named hd and tl, respectively

Lists n F# and ML
• F# Lists
– Like those of ML, except elements are separated by
semicolons and hd and tl are methods of the List class
• Python Lists
– The list data type also serves as Python’s arrays
– Unlike Scheme, Common LISP, ML, and F#, Python’s
lists are mutable
– Elements can be of any type
– Create a list with an assignment
myList = [3, 5.8, "grape"]
 Lists in Python
• List elements are referenced with subscripting, with
indices beginning at zero
x = myList[1] Sets x to 5.8
• List elements can be deleted with del
del myList[1]
• List Comprehensions – derived from set notation
[x * x for x in range(6) if x % 3 == 0]

range(12) creates [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Constructed list: [0, 9, 36]

List Comprehensions - Example

• Haskell’s List Comprehensions

– The original
[n * n | n <- [1..10]]

• F#’s List Comprehensions

let myArray = [|for i in 1 .. 5 -> [i * i) |]

• Both C# and Java supports lists through

their generic heap-dynamic collection
classes, List and ArrayList, respectively
 Unions Types
• A union is a type whose variables are
allowed to store different type values at
different times during execution
• Design issues
– Should type checking be required?
– Should unions be embedded in records?

Discriminated vs. Free Unions

• Fortran, C, and C++ provide union
constructs in which there is no language
support for type checking; the union in
these languages is called free union
• Type checking of unions require that each
union include a type indicator called a
discriminant
– Supported by Ada
 Ada Union Types

type Shape is (Circle, Triangle, Rectangle);

type Colors is (Red, Green, Blue);
type Figure (Form: Shape) is record
Filled: Boolean;
Color: Colors;
case Form is
when Circle => Diameter: Float;
when Triangle =>
Leftside, Rightside: Integer;
Angle: Float;
when Rectangle => Side1, Side2: Integer;
end case;
end record;

Ada Union Type Illustrated

A discriminated union of three shape variables

 Implementation of Unions
type Node (Tag : Boolean) is
record
case Tag is
when True => Count : Integer;
when False => Sum : Float;
end case;
end record;

Evaluation of Unions
• Free unions are unsafe
– Do not allow type checking
• Java and C# do not support unions
– Reflective of growing concerns for safety in
programming language
• Ada’s descriminated unions are safe
 Pointer and Reference Types
• A pointer type variable has a range of
values that consists of memory addresses
and a special value, nil
• Provide the power of indirect addressing
• Provide a way to manage dynamic memory
• A pointer can be used to access a location in
the area where storage is dynamically
created (usually called a heap)

Design Issues of Pointers

• What are the scope of and lifetime of a pointer
variable?
• What is the lifetime of a heap-dynamic variable?
• Are pointers restricted as to the type of value to
which they can point?
• Are pointers used for dynamic storage
management, indirect addressing, or both?
• Should the language support pointer types,
reference types, or both?
 Pointer Operations
• Two fundamental operations: assignment
and dereferencing
• Assignment is used to set a pointer
variable’s value to some useful address
• Dereferencing yields the value stored at the
location represented by the pointer’s value
– Dereferencing can be explicit or implicit
– C++ uses an explicit operation via *
j = *ptr
sets j to the value located at ptr

Pointer Assignment Illustrated

The assignment operation j = *ptr

 Problems with Pointers
• Dangling pointers (dangerous)
– A pointer points to a heap-dynamic variable that has been
deallocated
• Lost heap-dynamic variable
– An allocated heap-dynamic variable that is no longer accessible to
the user program (often called garbage)
• Pointer p1 is set to point to a newly created heap-dynamic
variable
• Pointer p1 is later set to point to another newly created heap-
dynamic variable
• The process of losing heap-dynamic variables is called memory
leakage

Pointers in Ada
• Some dangling pointers are disallowed
because dynamic objects can be
automatically deallocated at the end of
pointer's type scope
• The lost heap-dynamic variable problem is
not eliminated by Ada (possible with
UNCHECKED_DEALLOCATION)
 Pointers in C and C++
• Extremely flexible but must be used with care
• Pointers can point at any variable regardless of
when or where it was allocated
• Used for dynamic storage management and
addressing
• Pointer arithmetic is possible
• Explicit dereferencing and address-of operators
• Domain type need not be fixed (void *)
void * can point to any type and can be type
checked (cannot be de-referenced)

Pointer Arithmetic in C and C++

float stuff[100];
float *p;
p = stuff;

*(p+5) is equivalent to stuff[5] and p[5]

*(p+i) is equivalent to stuff[i] and p[i]
 Reference Types

• C++ includes a special kind of pointer type called

a reference type that is used primarily for formal
parameters
– Advantages of both pass-by-reference and pass-by-
value
• Java extends C++’s reference variables and allows
them to replace pointers entirely
– References are references to objects, rather than being
addresses
• C# includes both the references of Java and the
pointers of C++

Evaluation of Pointers

• Dangling pointers and dangling objects are

problems as is heap management
• Pointers are like goto's--they widen the
range of cells that can be accessed by a
variable
• Pointers or references are necessary for
dynamic data structures--so we can't design
a language without them
 Representations of Pointers
• Large computers use single values
• Intel microprocessors use segment and
offset

Dangling Pointer Problem

• There are several proposed solutions for
dangling pointers:
– Tombstone
– Lock and Key
 Tombstone
• Tombstone is an extra heap cell that is a
pointer to the heap-dynamic variable
• The actual pointer variable points only at
tombstones
• When heap-dynamic variable de-allocated,
tombstone remains but set to nil
• Costly in time and space

Locks-and-keys
• Locks-and-keys use pointer values that are
represented as (key, address) pairs
• Heap-dynamic variables are represented as
variable plus cell for integer lock value
• When heap-dynamic variable allocated, lock value
is created and placed in lock cell and key cell of
pointer
 Heap Management
• A very complex run-time process
• Single-size cells vs. variable-size cells
• Two approaches to reclaim garbage
– Reference counters (eager approach):
reclamation is gradual
– Mark-sweep (lazy approach): reclamation
occurs when the list of variable space becomes
empty

Reference Counter
• Reference counters: maintain a counter in
every cell that store the number of pointers
currently pointing at the cell
– Disadvantages: space required, execution time
required, complications for cells connected
circularly
– Advantage: it is intrinsically incremental, so
significant delays in the application execution
are avoided
 Mark-Sweep
• The run-time system allocates storage cells as
requested and disconnects pointers from cells as
necessary; mark-sweep then begins
– Every heap cell has an extra bit used by collection
algorithm
– All cells initially set to garbage
– All pointers traced into heap, and reachable cells
marked as not garbage
– All garbage cells returned to list of available cells

Disadvantages of Mark-Sweep
• In its original form, it was done too
infrequently.
• When done, it caused significant delays in
application execution.
• Contemporary mark-sweep algorithms
avoid this by doing it more often—called
incremental mark-sweep
 Marking Algorithm

Variable-Size Cells
• All the difficulties of single-size cells plus more
• Required by most programming languages
• If mark-sweep is used, additional problems occur
• The initial setting of the indicators of all cells in
the heap is difficult
• The marking process in nontrivial
• Maintaining the list of available space is another
source of overhead
 Type Checking
• Generalize the concept of operands and operators
to include subprograms and assignments
• Type checking is the activity of ensuring that the
operands of an operator are of compatible types
• A compatible type is one that is either legal for the
operator, or is allowed under language rules to be
implicitly converted, by compiler- generated code,
to a legal type
– This automatic conversion is called a coercion.
• A type error is the application of an operator to an
operand of an inappropriate type

Type Checking (continued)

• If all type bindings are static, nearly all type

checking can be static
• If type bindings are dynamic, type checking must
be dynamic
• A programming language is strongly typed if type
errors are always detected
• Advantage of strong typing: allows the detection
of the misuses of variables that result in type
errors
Strong Typing – Language Examples

• C and C++ are not: parameter type checking

can be avoided; unions are not type checked
• Ada is, almost (UNCHECKED CONVERSION is
loophole)
• Java and C# are similar to Ada

Type Coercion
• Coercion rules strongly affect strong typing-
-they can weaken it considerably (C++
versus Ada)
• Although Java has just half the assignment
coercions of C++, its strong typing is still
far less effective than that of Ada
 Name Type Equivalence

• Name type equivalence means the two variables

have equivalent types if they are in either the same
declaration or in declarations that use the same
type name
• Easy to implement but highly restrictive:
• Subranges of integer types are not equivalent with
integer types
• Formal parameters must be the same type as their
corresponding actual parameters

Structure Type Equivalence

• Structure type equivalence means that two
variables have equivalent types if their
types have identical structures
• More flexible, but harder to implement
 Type Equivalence (continued)

• Consider the problem of two structured types:

– Are two record types equivalent if they are
structurally the same but use different field
names?
– Are two array types equivalent if they are the
same except that the subscripts are different?
(e.g. [1..10] and [0..9])

Type Equivalence (continued)

• Consider the problem of two structured types:

– Are two enumeration types equivalent if their
components are spelled differently?
– With structural type equivalence, you cannot
differentiate between types of the same
structure (e.g. different units of speed, both
float)
 Theory and Data Types
• Type theory is a broad area of study in
mathematics, logic, computer science, and
philosophy
• Two branches of type theory in computer
science:
– Practical – data types in commercial languages
– Abstract – typed lambda calculus
• A type system is a set of types and the rules
that govern their use in programs

Theory and Data Types (continued)

• Formal model of a type system is a set of
types and a collection of functions that
define the type rules
– Either an attribute grammar or a type map could
be used for the functions
– Finite mappings – model arrays and functions
– Cartesian products – model tuples and records
– Set unions – model union types
– Subsets – model subtypes
 Summary
• The data types of a language are a large part of
what determines that language’s style and
usefulness
• The primitive data types of most imperative
languages include numeric, character, and Boolean
types
• The user-defined enumeration and subrange types
are convenient and add to the readability and
reliability of programs
• Arrays and records are included in most languages
• Pointers are used for addressing flexibility and to
control dynamic storage management