Data types indicate the kind of data that a valid C# variable can contain. C# is a strongly typed programming language. In C#, each data type (integer, character, floating point, etc.) is predefined as part of the programming language, and every constant or variable defined for a particular program will be one of the data types.

Data types in C# is mainly divided into three categories.

  • Value Data Types
  • Reference Data Types
  • Pointer Data Type
  1. Value Data Types: In C#, the Value Data Types will directly store the variable value in memory, and it will also accept both signed and unsigned literals. The derived class for these data types are System.ValueType. Following are different Value Data Types in C# programming language:
      • Signed & Unsigned Integral Types: There are 8 integral types which provide support for 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, and 64-bit values in signed or unsigned form.
        longSystem.Int64signed integer64-263 to 263-10LushortSystem.UInt16unsigned integer160 to 655350ulongSystem.UInt64unsigned integer640 to 2630
        Alias Type Name Type Size(bits) Range Default Value
        sbyte System.Sbyte signed integer 8 -128 to 127 0
        short System.Int16 signed integer 16 -32768 to 32767 0
        Int System.Int32 signed integer 32 -231 to 231-1 0
        byte System.byte unsigned integer 8 0 to 255 0
        uint System.UInt32 unsigned integer 32 0 to 232 0
      • Floating Point Types: There are 2 floating point data types which contain the decimal point.
        • Float: It is 32-bit single-precision floating point type. It has 7-digit Precision. To initialize a float variable, use the suffix f or F. Like, float x = 3.5F; If the suffix F or f will not use then it is treated as double.
        • Double: It is 64-bit double-precision floating point type. It has 14 – 15 digit Precision. To initialize a double variable, use the suffix d or D. But it is not mandatory to use suffix because by default floating data types are the double type.

        Alias Type name Size(bits) Range (aprox) Default Value
        float System.Single 32 ±1.5 × 10-45 to ±3.4 × 1038 0.0F
        double System.Double 64 ±5.0 × 10-324 to ±1.7 × 10308 0.0D
      • Decimal Types : The decimal type is a 128-bit data type suitable for financial and monetary calculations. It has 28-29 digit Precision. To initialize a decimal variable, use the suffix m or M. Like as, decimal x = 300.5m;. If the suffix m or M will not use then it is treated as double.
        Alias Type name Size(bits) Range (aprox) Default value
        decimal System.Decimal 128 ±1.0 × 10-28 to ±7.9228 × 1028 0.0M
      • Character Types : The character types represents a UTF-16 code unit or represents the 16-bit Unicode character.
        Alias Type name Size In(Bits) Range Default value
        char System.Char 16 U +0000 to U +ffff ‘\0’

    Example:

    // C# program to demonstrate 
    // the above data types
    using System;
    namespace ValueTypeTest {
         
    class CodeConfig {
         
        // Main function
        static void Main()
        {
             
            // declaring character
            char a = 'A';
     
            // Integer data type is generally
            // used for numeric values
            int i = 89;
     
            short s = 56;
             
            // this will give error as number
            // is larger than short range
            // short s1 = 87878787878;
     
            // long uses Integer values which 
            // may signed or unsigned
            long l = 4564;
     
            // UInt data type is generally
            // used for unsigned integer values
            uint ui = 95;
     
            ushort us = 76;
            // this will give error as number is
            // larger than short range
     
            // ulong data type is generally
            // used for unsigned integer values
            ulong ul = 3624573;
     
            // by default fraction value
            // is double in C#
            double d = 8.358674532;
     
            // for float use 'f' as suffix
            float f = 3.7330645f;
     
            // for float use 'm' as suffix
            decimal dec = 389.5m;
     
            Console.WriteLine("char: " + a);
            Console.WriteLine("integer: " + i);
            Console.WriteLine("short: " + s);
            Console.WriteLine("long: " + l);
            Console.WriteLine("float: " + f);
            Console.WriteLine("double: " + d);
            Console.WriteLine("decimal: " + dec);
            Console.WriteLine("Unsinged integer: " + ui);
            Console.WriteLine("Unsinged short: " + us);
            Console.WriteLine("Unsinged long: " + ul);
        }
    }
    }

    Output:

    char: A
integer: 89
short: 56
long: 4564
float: 3.733064
double: 8.358674532
decimal: 389.5
Unsinged integer: 95
Unsinged short: 76
Unsinged long: 3624573

    Example :

    // C# program to demonstrate the Sbyte
    // signed integral data type
    using System;
    namespace ValueTypeTest {
     
    class CodeConfig{
     
        // Main function
        static void Main()
        {
            sbyte a = 126;
     
            // sbyte is 8 bit 
            // singned value
            Console.WriteLine(a);
     
            a++;
            Console.WriteLine(a);
     
            // It overflows here because
            // byte can hold values 
            // from -128 to 127
            a++;
            Console.WriteLine(a);
     
            // Looping back within 
            // the range
            a++;
            Console.WriteLine(a);
        }
    }
    }

    Output:

    126
127
-128
-127

    Example:

    // C# program to demonstrate 
    // the byte data type
    using System;
    namespace ValueTypeTest {
     
    class CodeConfig {
         
        // Main function
        static void Main()
        {
            byte a = 0;
     
            // byte is 8 bit 
            // unsigned value
            Console.WriteLine(a);
     
            a++;
            Console.WriteLine(a);
     
            a = 254;
             
            // It overflows here because
            // byte can hold values from
            // 0 to 255
            a++;
            Console.WriteLine(a);
     
            // Looping back within the range
            a++;
            Console.WriteLine(a);
        }
    }
    }

    Output:

    0
1
255
0
    • Boolean Types: It has to be assigned either true or false value. Values of type bool are not converted implicitly or explicitly (with casts) to any other type. But the programmer can easily write conversion code.
      Alias Type name Values
      bool System.Boolean True / False

      Example:

      // C# program to demonstrate the
      // boolean data type
      using System;
      namespace ValueTypeTest {
           
          class CodeConfig {
               
          // Main function
          static void Main() 
          {
               
              // boolean data type
              bool b = true;     
              if (b == true)
                  Console.WriteLine("Hello world");
          } 
      }
      }

      Output:

      Hello world
  2. Reference Data Types: The Reference Data Types will contain a memory address of variable value because the reference types won’t store the variable value directly in memory. The built-in reference types are string, object.
      • String: It represents a sequence of Unicode characters and its type name is System.String. So, string and String are equivalent.
        Example: 
        string s1 = "hello"; // creating through string keyword  
String s2 = "welcome"; // creating through String class
      • Object: In C#, all types, predefined and user-defined, reference types and value types, inherit directly or indirectly from Object. So basically, it is the base class for all the data types in C#. Before assigning values, it needs type conversion. When a variable of a value type is converted to object, it’s called boxing. When a variable of type object is converted to a value type, it’s called unboxing. Its type name is System.Object.

    Example:

    // C# program to demonstrate 
    // the Reference data types
    using System;
    namespace ValueTypeTest {
         
    class CodeConfig {
         
        // Main Function
        static void Main() 
        {
             
            // declaring string
            string a = "Code"; 
             
            //append in a
            a+="for";
            a = a+"developer"; 
            Console.WriteLine(a);
             
            // declare object obj
            object obj;
            obj = 21;
            Console.WriteLine(obj);
             
            // to show type of object
            // using GetType()
            Console.WriteLine(obj.GetType()); 
        } 
    }
    }

    Output:

    CodeforDeveloper
21
System.Int32
  3. Pointer Data Type: The Pointer Data Types will contain a memory address of the variable value.
    To get the pointer details we have a two symbols ampersand (&) and asterisk (*).
    ampersand (&): It is Known as Address Operator. It is used to determine the address of a variable.
    asterisk (*): It also known as Indirection Operator. It is used to access the value of an address.
    Syntax : 
    type* identifier;

    Example :
    int* p1, p;   // Valid syntax
int *p1, *p;   // Invalid

    Example :

    // Note: This program will not work on
    // online compiler
    using System;
    namespace Pointerprogram {
     class CodeConfig {
     // Main function
    static void Main()
    {
    unsafe
    {
    // declare variable
    int n = 10;
    // store variable n address 
    // location in pointer variable p
    int* p = &n;
    Console.WriteLine("Value :{0}", n);
    Console.WriteLine("Address :{0}", (int)p);
    }
    }
    }
    }

In this article we tried to explain C# | Data Types with Examples. I hope you enjoyed reading this article. For more information you can check out Microsoft learn.

For more information you can visit our C# Section for more such articles.

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