Integer Data Types
An integer is a whole number — that is, a number with no fractional or decimal portion. Java has four integer types, which you can use to store numbers of varying sizes.
Type |
Number of Bytes |
Range of Values |
|
1 |
–128 to +127 |
|
2 |
–32,768 to +32,767 |
|
4 |
–2 billion to +2 billion |
|
8 |
–4,000 trillion to +4,000 trillion |
The most commonly used integer type is int
. You can use short
or even byte
when you know the variable won’t need to store large values, and you can use long
when your program will require large values — for example, when calculating the federal deficit.
int xInt;
long yLong;
xInt = 32;
yLong = xInt;
Java does not allow the converse, however. The following code is not valid:
int xInt;
long yLong;
yLong = 32;
xInt = yLong;
long xLong = 58473882;
xLong = 58_473_882;