Another C datatypes question
- by b-gen-jack-o-neill
Hello. Well, I completely get the most basic datatypes of C, like short, int, long, float, to be exact, all numerical types.These types are needed to be known perform right operations with right numbers. For example to use FPU to add two float numbers. So the compiler must know what the type is.
But, when it comes to characters I am little bit off. I know that basic C datatype char is there for ASCII characters coding. But what I don´t know is, why you even need another datatype for characters. Why could not you just use 1 byte integer value to store ASCII character. If you call printf, you apecify the datatype in the call, so you could say to printf that the integer represents ASCII character. I dont know how cout resolves datatype, but I guess you could just specify it somehow.
Another thing is, when you want to use Unicode, you must use datatype wchar. But, what if I would like to use some another, for example ISO, or Windows coding instead of UTF? Becouse wchar codes characters as UTF-16 or UTF-32 (I read its compiler specific). And, what if I would want to use for example some imaginary new 8 byte text coding? What datatype should I use for it? I am actually pretty confused of this, becouse I always expected that if I want to use UTF-32 instead of ASCII, I just tell compiler "get UTF-32 value of the character I typed and save it into 4 char field." I thought that text coding is to be dealt with by the end, print function for example. That I just need to specify the coding for the compiler to use, since Windows doesent use ASCII in win32 apps, I guess C compiler must convert the char I typed to ASCII from whatever the type is that windows sends to the C editor.
And the last thing is, what if I want to use for example 25 Byte integer for some high math operations? C has no specify-yourself datatype. Yes, I know that this would be difficult since all the math operations would need to be changed, becouse CPU can not add 25 Bytes numbers together. But is there a way to do it? Or is there some math library for it? What if I want to compute Pi to 1000000000000000 digits? :)
I know my question is pretty long, but I just wanted to explain my thoughts the best I can in English, since its not my native language it is difficult. And I believe there is simple answer to my question(s), something I missed that explains everything. I read lot about text coding, C tutorials, but nothing about his. Thank you for your time.
