Difference between Short, long and Long long int in C programming? [duplicate]

Question

I am learning C programming online on my own so that I can be prepared for College in Winter 2016. I am learning about data types right now. I don't understand the difference between:

short
long
long long integers in C programming

I looked online, but I am still confused on how to use these and when. Thank you.

Answer 1

C was originally written for 16-bit machines, where the fastest and most-convenient size of integer to work with were 16 bits. This was the original int type. Sometimes, programmers needed 32-bit numbers, so those were the long int type.

In due course, people ported C to 32-bit machines where the most convenient word size was 32 bits. They wanted to keep using int to mean the native word size, because for example about every C program in the real world has int i; in it somewhere, but sometimes, they also needed to use 16-bit numbers to save space. So those became the short int type.

Time passed, and C needed to be ported to 64-bit machines. By then, there were a lot of programs in existence that assumed long was exactly 32 bits wide, and unfortunately, a lot of programs that also assumed that a long was the same size as a pointer, an IPv4 address, a file offset, a timestamp, etc. Good code uses types such as size_t, uintptr_t, and off_t instead, but old versions of the system libraries defined their library functions to use long, so a lot of legacy code had to as well. Since C99 came out, there have also been types such as int32_t in the standard library to specify exact widths, and Unix and Windows have had them under different names for a while.

As a consequence of the types being used to mean contradictory things, compilers today give programmers the choice between long being 32 and 64 bits wide, and 64-bit compilers let int be either 32 or 64 bits wide, too. At least one real compiler defined int as 64 bits (the native word length) but long as 32 bits (so the system libraries and code would still work). The standards committee prohibited that in C11: long long int is now guaranteed to be at least as wide as long int, and long int at least as wide as int.

Because a lot of programs couldn't redefine long as 64 bits without breaking, C needed a new type that meant (at least) 64-bit. By then, the standards committee was reluctant to introduce new keywords outside a header file, so they reused an existing one instead and named it long long int.

In brief, you shouldn’t make assumptions about what int and long mean beyond that int is at least 16 bits wide and fast, long is at least 32 bits wide, and on a C11 compiler long is at least as wide as int but no wider than long long. For general purposes, use int. If you need an array index, use size_t or ptrdiff_t. If you want to be sure you can hold a number over 32,767, and seriously expect you might need to run on some 16-bit machine someday, use long or the fast type from <inttypes.h>. If you’re making a system call, use the same type as its arguments. If you’re storing a pointer in an integer type, use uintptr_t. If you need a number at least 64 bits wide, use long long, and if you know exactly the width you need, use the exact-width type.

Answer 2

They are just different data types. They have different ranges. All store integers, but consume different memory and have different ranges. For eg: short int consumes 16bits, long int consumes 32bits and long long int consumes 64bits. The maximum value of short int is 32767. So of you need to store big values you need to use long int. Long long int is the biggest and it can store upto 20! More explanation and ranges are found here in the Wikipedia page All the best!