C is one of the most powerful programming languages in the World and it’s suitable for a wide variety of uses. You can compile C code with a number of different C and C++ compiler choices. The RAD Studio and C++ Builder IDEs are extremely powerful development tools for those who want to develop applications of all types. In this post, we have an example that shows what is a short int in C, how to convert an int to a string C, and a C++ example of how to convert an int to a string too.
As C/C++ developers we have a great selection of free C++ IDE and professional C++ IDEs. Tools like C++ Builder CE, Dev-C++, and even the BCC32 command line compiler. Although C++ Builder’s primary purpose is to be the best available C++ IDE which helps developers be at their most efficient and effective possible selves it is also quite capable of editing and compiling most C code thanks to C and C++ having a shared lineage.
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What is a long and a short int in C programming?
In C and C++ programming there is Declaration Syntax Index that defines most of data type declarations. C has fundamental data types for the characters, integers and floating numbers. The fundamental type specifiers are built from the following keywords:
| char | __int8 | long |
| double | __int16 | signed |
| float | __int32 | short |
| int | __int64 | unsigned |
Generally in C programming we use,
- char for characters
- char arrays for strings
- int for integers
- float or double for floating point numbers
These are the main types that we use in C programming. Thanks to the evolution of C and C++ and the underlaying hardware technology; 16bits, 32bits and 64bits operations bring new fundamental type terms. Normally an int data has 4 bytes size in the memory. If your data has lower integer numbers in a range, you can use short term to reduce the memory usage per data and this may help to speed up your calculations too. If you have wider range of numbers in your data, you can use long long term (yes, the word long does appear twice) when you declare an integer or an integer array. The fundamental type specifiers are defined well in the the Fundamental Types
The short int is used to speed up some operations if your integers are between -32,768 to 32767 in signed type or 0 to 65535 as in unsigned type. If a type has the unsigned specifier, its minimum range is 0 and the maximum range doubles its maximum range before. There are many integer types, these can be found in extended Integer Types docwiki section. For a short description, mainly shot int, int, long int and long long int has these sizes in the memory and their ranges are listed as below,
| Type Specifier | Size | Range (Signed) |
| short int | 2 Bytes | -32,768 to 32,767 |
| int | 4 Bytes | -2,147,483,647 to 2,147,483,647 |
| long int | 4 Bytes | -2,147,483,647 to 2,147,483,647 |
| long long int | 8 Bytes | -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 |
What is short int in C programming in reality and how we can use it?
When we use short int, short term is a Specifier Keyword, and the int term is a Type Keyword, both together called as Type Specifiers. We can simply use the short int type specifier as below,
in brief, we can use short term on its own too. Or if you want to know it is a signed variable you can use the signed short int term too. You can use the unsigned specifier to define it has positive integer number data only. All of them have the same size in the memory, 2 bytes. The signed and unsigned size of short int is same. The range changes as given below,
| Type Specifier | Size | Range |
| short short int signed short int | 2 Bytes | -32,768 to 32,767 |
| unsigned short unsigned short int | 2 Bytes | 0 to 65,535 |
Is there a short int example in C Programming ?
Here is a very good example that shows the size of different integer types.
and the output will be as follows,
What size is a short int in C++ Builder?
In C++ Builder, short int and other integer types are the same as listed above in CLANG standards.
Although the free C++ Builder Community Edition is extremely powerful it is intended for students, beginners, and startups. If you are a regular business or do not qualify for the free community edition then you can download a free trial of the very latest full RAD Studio C++ Builder version.
C++ Builder is the easiest and fastest C and C++ IDE for building simple or professional applications on the Windows, MacOS, iOS & Android operating systems. It is also easy for beginners to learn with its wide range of samples, tutorials, help files, and LSP support for code. RAD Studio’s C++ Builder version comes with the award-winning VCL framework for high-performance native Windows apps and the powerful FireMonkey (FMX) framework for cross-platform UIs.
There is a free C++ Builder Community Edition for students, beginners, and startups; it can be downloaded from here. For professional developers, there are Professional, Architect, or Enterprise versions of C++ Builder and there is a trial version you can download from here.