2. Character and string
The 'character' data type is able to store a single letter, number or symbol such as 'A', 'b', $, 4.
Using the character data type is very efficient in terms of memory as a character is stored either in a single byte (8 bits) or a single word (word length depends on the cpu type) depending on the computer system.
Every alphabet in the world can be represented by an international standard called 'Unicode'.
String data type
Characters are strung together to form words and sentences. It is convenient to treat these as a single variable the data type for this is called 'string'.
Item | Description |
---|---|
Name | Harry Potter |
Address | 29 Craft Avenue |
Telephone number | 022984848 |
Car Registration number | CX45 829 |
Colours | Blue |
Note: Telephone numbers are stored as a string rather than an integer data type because an integer data type will remove any leading zeros from the number, thus 01926 becomes 1926. Also, no mathematics are likely to be carried out on such numbers.
Challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you
Click on this link: Character and String data type