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UNIT-III
Data types

Topics
Introduction
Primitive Data Types
Character String Types
User-Defined Ordinal Types
Array Types
Associative Arrays
Record Types
Union Types
Pointer and Reference Types
Names
Variables
The Concept of Binding
Type Checking
Strong Typing
Type Compatibility
Scope
Scope and Lifetime
Referencing Environments
Named Constants


Introduction
A data type defines a collection of data objects and a set of predefined
operations on those objects
A descriptor is the collection of the attributes of a variable
An object represents an instance of a user-defined (abstract data) type
One design issue for all data types: What operations are defined and how are
they specified?

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Primitive Data Types
Almost all programming languages provide a set of primitive data types
Primitive data types: Those not defined in terms of other data types
Some primitive data types are merely reflections of the hardware
Others require only a little non-hardware support for their implementation

Primitive Data Types: Integer
Almost always an exact reflection of the hardware so the mapping is trivial
There may be as many as eight different integer types in a language
Javas signed integer sizes: byte, short, int, long

Primitive Data Types: Floating Point
Model real numbers, but only as approximations
Languages for scientific use support at least two floating-point types (e.g.,
float and double; sometimes more
Usually exactly like the hardware, but not always
IEEE Floating-Point
Standard 754

Primitive Data Types: Complex
Some languages support a complex type, e.g., Fortran and Python
Each value consists of two floats, the real part and the imaginary part
Literal form (in Python):
(7 + 3j), where 7 is the real part and 3 is the imaginary part

Primitive Data Types: Decimal
For business applications (money)
Essential to COBOL
C# offers a decimal data type
Store a fixed number of decimal digits, in coded form (BCD)
Advantage: accuracy
Disadvantages: limited range, wastes memory

Primitive Data Types: Boolean
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Simplest of all
Range of values: two elements, one for true and one for false
Could be implemented as bits, but often as bytes
Advantage: readability

Primitive Data Types: Character
Stored as numeric codings
Most commonly used coding: ASCII
An alternative, 16-bit coding: Unicode
Includes characters from most natural languages
Originally used in Java
C# and JavaScript also support Unicode

Character String Types
Values are sequences of characters
Design issues:
Is it a primitive type or just a special kind of array?
Should the length of strings be static or dynamic?

Character String Types Operations
Typical operations:
Assignment and copying
Comparison (=, >, etc.)
Catenation
Substring reference
Pattern matching

Character String Type in Certain Languages
C and C++
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Not primitive
Use char arrays and a library of functions that provide operations
SNOBOL4 (a string manipulation language)
Primitive
Many operations, including elaborate pattern matching
Fortran and Python
Primitive type with assignment and several operations
Java
Primitive via the String class
Perl, JavaScript, Ruby, and PHP
- Provide built-in pattern matching, using regular
expressions

Character String Length Options
Static: COBOL, Javas String class
Limited Dynamic Length: C and C++
In these languages, a special character is used to indicate the end of a
strings characters, rather than maintaining the length
Dynamic (no maximum): SNOBOL4, Perl, JavaScript
Ada supports all three string length options

Character String Type Evaluation
Aid to writability
As a primitive type with static length, they are inexpensive to provide--why
not have them?
Dynamic length is nice, but is it worth the expense?

Character String Implementation
Static length: compile-time descriptor
Limited dynamic length: may need a run-time descriptor for length (but not
in C and C++)
Dynamic length: need run-time descriptor; allocation/de-allocation is the
biggest implementation problem
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Compile- and Run-Time Descriptors




User-Defined Ordinal Types
An ordinal type is one in which the range of possible values can be easily
associated with the set of positive integers
Examples of primitive ordinal types in Java
integer
char
boolean

Enumeration Types
All possible values, which are named constants, are provided in the definition
C# example
enum days {mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat, sun};
Design issues
Is an enumeration constant allowed to appear in more than one type
definition, and if so, how is the type of an occurrence of that constant
checked?
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Are enumeration values coerced to integer?
Any other type coerced to an enumeration type?

Evaluation of Enumerated Type
Aid to readability, e.g., no need to code a color as a number
Aid to reliability, e.g., compiler can check:
operations (dont allow colors to be added)
No enumeration variable can be assigned a value outside its defined
range
Ada, C#, and Java 5.0 provide better support for enumeration than
C++ because enumeration type variables in these languages are not
coerced into integer types

Subrange Types
An ordered contiguous subsequence of an ordinal type
Example: 12..18 is a subrange of integer type
Adas design
type Days is (mon, tue, wed, thu, fri, sat, sun);
subtype Weekdays is Days range mon..fri;
subtype Index is Integer range 1..100;

Day1: Days;
Day2: Weekday;
Day2 := Day1;

Subrange Evaluation
Aid to readability
Make it clear to the readers that variables of subrange can store only
certain range of values
Reliability
Assigning a value to a subrange variable that is outside the specified
range is detected as an error

Implementation of User-Defined Ordinal Types
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Enumeration types are implemented as integers
Subrange types are implemented like the parent types with code inserted (by
the compiler) to restrict assignments to subrange variables

Array Types
An array is an aggregate of homogeneous data elements in which an
individual element is identified by its position in the aggregate, relative to the
first element.

Array Design Issues
What types are legal for subscripts?
Are subscripting expressions in element references range checked?
When are subscript ranges bound?
When does allocation take place?
What is the maximum number of subscripts?
Can array objects be initialized?
Are any kind of slices supported?

Array Indexing
Indexing (or subscripting) is a mapping from indices to elements
array_name (index_value_list) an element
Index Syntax
FORTRAN, PL/I, Ada use parentheses
Ada explicitly uses parentheses to show uniformity between array references
and function calls because both are mappings
Most other languages use brackets

Arrays Index (Subscript) Types
FORTRAN, C: integer only
Ada: integer or enumeration (includes Boolean and char)
Java: integer types only
Index range checking
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- C, C++, Perl, and Fortran do not specify
range checking
- Java, ML, C# specify range checking
- In Ada, the default is to require range
checking, but it can be turned off

Subscript Binding and Array Categories
Static: subscript ranges are statically bound and storage allocation is static
(before run-time)
Advantage: efficiency (no dynamic allocation)
Fixed stack-dynamic: subscript ranges are statically bound, but the allocation
is done at declaration time
Advantage: space efficiency

Stack-dynamic: subscript ranges are dynamically bound and the storage
allocation is dynamic (done at run-time)
Advantage: flexibility (the size of an array need not be known until the
array is to be used)
Fixed heap-dynamic: similar to fixed stack-dynamic: storage binding is
dynamic but fixed after allocation (i.e., binding is done when requested and
storage is allocated from heap, not stack)
Subscript Binding and Array Categories (continued)
Heap-dynamic: binding of subscript ranges and storage allocation is dynamic
and can change any number of times
Advantage: flexibility (arrays can grow or shrink during program
execution)
C and C++ arrays that include static modifier are static
C and C++ arrays without static modifier are fixed stack-dynamic
C and C++ provide fixed heap-dynamic arrays
C# includes a second array class ArrayList that provides fixed heap-dynamic
Perl, JavaScript, Python, and Ruby support heap-dynamic arrays

Array Initialization
Some language allow initialization at the time of storage allocation
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C, C++, Java, C# example
int list [] = {4, 5, 7, 83}
Character strings in C and C++
char name [] = freddie;
Arrays of strings in C and C++
char *names [] = {Bob, Jake, Joe];
Java initialization of String objects
String[] names = {Bob, Jake, Joe};

Heterogeneous Arrays
A heterogeneous array is one in which the elements need not be of the same
type
Supported by Perl, Python, JavaScript, and Ruby

Arrays Operations
APL provides the most powerful array processing operations for vectors and
matrixes as well as unary operators (for example, to reverse column elements)
Ada allows array assignment but also catenation
Pythons array assignments, but they are only reference changes. Python
also supports array catenation and element membership operations
Ruby also provides array catenation
Fortran provides elemental operations because they are between pairs of
array elements
For example, + operator between two arrays results in an array of the sums of
the element pairs of the two arrays

Rectangular and Jagged Arrays
A rectangular array is a multi-dimensioned array in which all of the rows
have the same number of elements and all columns have the same number of
elements
A jagged matrix has rows with varying number of elements
Possible when multi-dimensioned arrays actually appear as arrays of arrays
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C, C++, and Java support jagged arrays
Fortran, Ada, and C# support rectangular arrays (C# also supports jagged
arrays)

Slices
A slice is some substructure of an array; nothing more than a referencing
mechanism
Slices are only useful in languages that have array operations

Slice Examples
Fortran 95
Integer, Dimension (10) :: Vector
Integer, Dimension (3, 3) :: Mat
Integer, Dimension (3, 3) :: Cube

Vector (3:6) is a four element array

Slices Examples in Fortran 95





Implementation of Arrays
Access function maps subscript expressions to an address in the array
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Access function for single-dimensioned arrays:
address(list[k]) = address (list[lower_bound])
+ ((k-lower_bound) * element_size)

Accessing Multi-dimensioned Arrays
Two common ways:
Row major order (by rows) used in most languages
column major order (by columns) used in Fortran


Locating an Element in a Multi-dimensioned Array



Compile-Time Descriptors

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Associative Arrays
An associative array is an unordered collection of data elements that are
indexed by an equal number of values called keys
User-defined keys must be stored
Design issues:
- What is the form of references to elements?
- Is the size static or dynamic?

Associative Arrays in Perl
Names begin with %; literals are delimited by parentheses
%hi_temps = ("Mon" => 77, "Tue" => 79, Wed => 65, );
Subscripting is done using braces and keys
$hi_temps{"Wed"} = 83;
Elements can be removed with delete
delete $hi_temps{"Tue"};

Record Types
A record is a possibly heterogeneous aggregate of data elements in which the
individual elements are identified by names
Design issues:
What is the syntactic form of references to the field?
Are elliptical references allowed


Definition of Records in COBOL
COBOL uses level numbers to show nested records; others use recursive
definition
01 EMP-REC.
02 EMP-NAME.
05 FIRST PIC X(20).
05 MID PIC X(10).
05 LAST PIC X(20).
02 HOURLY-RATE PIC 99V99.

Definition of Records in Ada
Record structures are indicated in an orthogonal way
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type Emp_Rec_Type is record
First: String (1..20);
Mid: String (1..10);
Last: String (1..20);
Hourly_Rate: Float;
end record;
Emp_Rec: Emp_Rec_Type;

References to Records
Record field references
1. COBOL
field_name OF record_name_1 OF ... OF record_name_n
2. Others (dot notation)
record_name_1.record_name_2. ... record_name_n.field_name

Fully qualified references must include all record names

Elliptical references allow leaving out record names as long as the reference
is unambiguous, for example in COBOL
FIRST, FIRST OF EMP-NAME, and FIRST of EMP-REC are elliptical
references to the employees first name

Operations on Records
Assignment is very common if the types are identical
Ada allows record comparison
Ada records can be initialized with aggregate literals
COBOL provides MOVE CORRESPONDING
Copies a field of the source record to the corresponding field in the target
record
Evaluation and Comparison to Arrays

Records are used when collection of data values is heterogeneous
Access to array elements is much slower than access to record fields, because
subscripts are dynamic (field names are static)
Dynamic subscripts could be used with record field access, but it would
disallow type checking and it would be much slower

Implementation of Record Type

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Unions Types
A union is a type whose variables are allowed to store different type values at
different times during execution
Design issues
Should type checking be required?
Should unions be embedded in records?

Discriminated vs. Free Unions
Fortran, C, and C++ provide union constructs in which there is no language
support for type checking; the union in these languages is called free union
Type checking of unions require that each union include a type indicator
called a discriminant
Supported by Ada

Ada Union Types
type Shape is (Circle, Triangle, Rectangle);
type Colors is (Red, Green, Blue);
type Figure (Form: Shape) is record
Filled: Boolean;
Color: Colors;
case Form is
when Circle => Diameter: Float;
when Triangle =>
Leftside, Rightside: Integer;
Angle: Float;
when Rectangle => Side1, Side2: Integer;
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end case;
end record;

Ada Union Type Illustrated

Evaluation of Unions
Free unions are unsafe
Do not allow type checking
Java and C# do not support unions
Reflective of growing concerns for safety in programming language
Adas descriminated unions are safe


Pointer and Reference Types
A pointer type variable has a range of values that consists of memory
addresses and a special value, nil
Provide the power of indirect addressing
Provide a way to manage dynamic memory
A pointer can be used to access a location in the area where storage is
dynamically created (usually called a heap)

Design Issues of Pointers
What are the scope of and lifetime of a pointer variable?
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What is the lifetime of a heap-dynamic variable?
Are pointers restricted as to the type of value to which they can point?
Are pointers used for dynamic storage management, indirect addressing, or
both?
Should the language support pointer types, reference types, or both?

Pointer Operations
Two fundamental operations: assignment and dereferencing
Assignment is used to set a pointer variables value to some useful address
Dereferencing yields the value stored at the location represented by the
pointers value
Dereferencing can be explicit or implicit
C++ uses an explicit operation via *
j = *ptr
sets j to the value located at ptr

Pointer Assignment Illustrated

The assignment operation j = *ptr

Problems with Pointers
Dangling pointers (dangerous)
A pointer points to a heap-dynamic variable that has been deallocated
Lost heap-dynamic variable
An allocated heap-dynamic variable that is no longer accessible to the user
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program (often called garbage)
Pointer p1 is set to point to a newly created heap-dynamic variable
Pointer p1 is later set to point to another newly created heap-dynamic
variable
The process of losing heap-dynamic variables is called memory leakage

Pointers in Ada
Some dangling pointers are disallowed because dynamic objects can be
automatically deallocated at the end of pointer's type scope
The lost heap-dynamic variable problem is not eliminated by Ada (possible
with UNCHECKED_DEALLOCATION)

Pointers in C and C++
Extremely flexible but must be used with care
Pointers can point at any variable regardless of when or where it was
allocated
Used for dynamic storage management and addressing
Pointer arithmetic is possible
Explicit dereferencing and address-of operators
Domain type need not be fixed (void *)
void * can point to any type and can be type
checked (cannot be de-referenced)

Pointer Arithmetic in C and C++
float stuff[100];
float *p;
p = stuff;

*(p+5) is equivalent to stuff[5] and p[5]
*(p+i) is equivalent to stuff[i] and p[i]

Reference Types

C++ includes a special kind of pointer type called a reference type that is
used primarily for formal parameters
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Advantages of both pass-by-reference and pass-by-value
Java extends C++s reference variables and allows them to replace pointers
entirely
References are references to objects, rather than being addresses
C# includes both the references of Java and the pointers of C++

Evaluation of Pointers
Dangling pointers and dangling objects are problems as is heap management
Pointers are like goto's--they widen the range of cells that can be accessed by
a variable
Pointers or references are necessary for dynamic data structures--so we can't
design a language without them

Representations of Pointers
Large computers use single values
Intel microprocessors use segment and offset

Dangling Pointer Problem
Tombstone: extra heap cell that is a pointer to the heap-dynamic variable
The actual pointer variable points only at tombstones
When heap-dynamic variable de-allocated, tombstone remains but set to nil
Costly in time and space
. Locks-and-keys: Pointer values are represented as (key, address) pairs
Heap-dynamic variables are represented as variable plus cell for integer lock
value
When heap-dynamic variable allocated, lock value is created and placed in
lock cell and key cell of pointer


Heap Management
A very complex run-time process
Single-size cells vs. variable-size cells
Two approaches to reclaim garbage
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Reference counters (eager approach): reclamation is gradual
Mark-sweep (lazy approach): reclamation occurs when the list of variable
space becomes empty



Reference Counter
Reference counters: maintain a counter in every cell that store the number of
pointers currently pointing at the cell
Disadvantages: space required, execution time required, complications for
cells connected circularly
Advantage: it is intrinsically incremental, so significant delays in the
application execution are avoided

Mark-Sweep
The run-time system allocates storage cells as requested and disconnects
pointers from cells as necessary; mark-sweep then begins
Every heap cell has an extra bit used by collection algorithm
All cells initially set to garbage
All pointers traced into heap, and reachable cells marked as not garbage
All garbage cells returned to list of available cells
Disadvantages: in its original form, it was done too infrequently. When done,
it caused significant delays in application execution. Contemporary mark-
sweep algorithms avoid this by doing it more oftencalled incremental mark-
sweep

Marking Algorithm
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Variable-Size Cells
All the difficulties of single-size cells plus more
Required by most programming languages
If mark-sweep is used, additional problems occur
The initial setting of the indicators of all cells in the heap is difficult
The marking process in nontrivial
Maintaining the list of available space is another source of overhead

Names
Design issues for names:
Maximum length?
Are connector characters allowed?
Are names case sensitive?
Are special words reserved words or keywords?

Length
If too short, they cannot be connotative
Language examples:
FORTRAN I: maximum 6
COBOL: maximum 30
FORTRAN 90 and ANSI C: maximum 31
Ada and Java: no limit, and all are significant
C++: no limit, but implementors often impose one
Connectors
Pascal, Modula-2, and FORTRAN 77 don't allow
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Others do
Case sensitivity
Disadvantage: readability (names that look alike are different)
worse in C++ and Java because predefined names are mixed case (e.g.
IndexOutOfBoundsException)
C, C++, and Java names are case sensitive
The names in other languages are not
Special words
An aid to readability; used to delimit or separate statement clauses
Def: A keyword is a word that is special only in certain contexts i.e. in Fortran:
Real VarName (Real is data type followed with a name, therefore Real is a keyword)
Real = 3.4 (Real is a variable)
Disadvantage: poor readability
Def: A reserved word is a special word that cannot be used as a user-defined
name

Variables
A variable is an abstraction of a memory cell
Variables can be characterized as a sextuple of attributes:
(name, address, value, type, lifetime, and scope)
Name - not all variables have them (anonymous)
Address - the memory address with which it is associated (also called l-value)
A variable may have different addresses at different times during execution
A variable may have different addresses at different places in a program
If two variable names can be used to access the same memory location, they are
called aliases
Aliases are harmful to readability (program readers must remember all of them)
How aliases can be created:
Pointers, reference variables, C and C++ unions, (and through parameters -
discussed in Chapter 9)
Some of the original justifications for aliases are no longer valid; e.g. memory
reuse in FORTRAN
Replace them with dynamic allocation
Type - determines the range of values of variables and the set of operations that are
defined for values of that type; in the case of floating point, type also determines the
precision
Value - the contents of the location with which the variable is associated
Abstract memory cell - the physical cell or collection of cells associated with a
variable


The Concept of Binding
The l-value of a variable is its address
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The r-value of a variable is its value
Def: A binding is an association, such as between an attribute and an entity, or
between an operation and a symbol
Def: Binding time is the time at which a binding takes place.
Possible binding times:
Language design time--e.g., bind operator symbols to operations
Language implementation time--e.g., bind floating point type to a
representation
Compile time--e.g., bind a variable to a type in C or Java
Load time--e.g., bind a FORTRAN 77 variable to a memory cell (or a C static
variable)
Runtime--e.g., bind a nonstatic local variable to a memory cell
Def: A binding is static if it first occurs before run time and remains unchanged
throughout program execution.
Def: A binding is dynamic if it first occurs during execution or can change during
execution of the program.
Type Bindings
How is a type specified?
When does the binding take place?
If static, the type may be specified by either an explicit or an implicit declaration
Def: An explicit declaration is a program statement used for declaring the types of
variables
Def: An implicit declaration is a default mechanism for specifying types of variables
(the first appearance of the variable in the program)
FORTRAN, PL/I, BASIC, and Perl provide implicit declarations
Advantage: writability
Disadvantage: reliability (less trouble with Perl)
Dynamic Type Binding (JavaScript and PHP)
Specified through an assignment statement e.g., JavaScript
list = [2, 4.33, 6, 8];
list = 17.3;
Advantage: flexibility (generic program units)
Disadvantages:
High cost (dynamic type checking and interpretation)
Type error detection by the compiler is difficult
Type Inferencing (ML, Miranda, and Haskell)
Rather than by assignment statement, types are determined from the context of
the reference
Storage Bindings & Lifetime
Allocation - getting a cell from some pool of available cells
Deallocation - putting a cell back into the pool
Def: The lifetime of a variable is the time during which it is bound to a particular
memory cell
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Categories of variables by lifetimes
Static--bound to memory cells before execution begins and remains bound to
the same memory cell throughout execution.
e.g. all FORTRAN 77 variables, C static variables
Advantages: efficiency (direct addressing), history-sensitive subprogram
support
Disadvantage: lack of flexibility (no recursion)
Categories of variables by lifetimes
Stack-dynamic--Storage bindings are created for variables when their
declaration statements are elaborated.
If scalar, all attributes except address are statically bound
e.g. local variables in C subprograms and Java methods
Advantage: allows recursion; conserves storage
Disadvantages:
Overhead of allocation and deallocation
Subprograms cannot be history sensitive
Inefficient references (indirect addressing)
Categories of variables by lifetimes
Explicit heap-dynamic--Allocated and deallocated by explicit directives,
specified by the programmer, which take effect during execution
Referenced only through pointers or references
e.g. dynamic objects in C++ (via new and delete)
all objects in Java
Advantage: provides for dynamic storage management
Disadvantage: inefficient and unreliable
Categories of variables by lifetimes
Implicit heap-dynamic--Allocation and deallocation caused by assignment
statements
e.g. all variables in APL; all strings and arrays in Perl and JavaScript
Advantage: flexibility
Disadvantages:
Inefficient, because all attributes are dynamic
Loss of error detection

Type Checking
Generalize the concept of operands and operators to include subprograms and
assignments
Type checking is the activity of ensuring that the operands of an operator are of
compatible types
A compatible type is one that is either legal for the operator, or is allowed under
language rules to be implicitly converted, by compiler- generated code, to a legal
type. This automatic conversion is called a coercion.
A type error is the application of an operator to an operand of an inappropriate
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type
If all type bindings are static, nearly all type checking can be static
If type bindings are dynamic, type checking must be dynamic
Def: A programming language is strongly typed if type errors are always detected


Strong Typing
Advantage of strong typing: allows the detection of the misuses of variables that
result in type errors
Language examples:
FORTRAN 77 is not: parameters, EQUIVALENCE
Pascal is not: variant records
C and C++ are not: parameter type checking can be avoided; unions are not
type checked
Ada is, almost (UNCHECKED CONVERSION is loophole)
(Java is similar)
Coercion rules strongly affect strong typing--they can weaken it considerably (C++
versus Ada)
Although Java has just half the assignment coercions of C++, its strong typing is
still far less effective than that of Ada

Type Compatibility
Our concern is primarily for structured types
Def: Name type compatibility means the two variables have compatible types if
they are in either the same declaration or in declarations that use the same type
name
Easy to implement but highly restrictive:
Subranges of integer types are not compatible with integer types
Formal parameters must be the same type as their corresponding actual
parameters (Pascal)
Structure type compatibility means that two variables have compatible types if their
types have identical structures
More flexible, but harder to implement
Consider the problem of two structured types:
Are two record types compatible if they are structurally the same but use
different field names?
Are two array types compatible if they are the same except that the subscripts
are different?
(e.g. [1..10] and [0..9])
Are two enumeration types compatible if their components are spelled
differently?
With structural type compatibility, you cannot differentiate between types of
the same structure (e.g. different units of speed, both float)
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Language examples:
Pascal: usually structure, but in some cases name is used (formal parameters)
C: structure, except for records
Ada: restricted form of name
Derived types allow types with the same structure to be different
Anonymous types are all unique, even in:
A, B : array (1..10) of INTEGER:
Scope
The scope of a variable is the range of statements over which it is visible
The nonlocal variables of a program unit are those that are visible but not declared
there
The scope rules of a language determine how references to names are associated
with variables
Static scope
Based on program text
To connect a name reference to a variable, you (or the compiler) must find the
declaration
Search process: search declarations, first locally, then in increasingly larger
enclosing scopes, until one is found for the given name
Enclosing static scopes (to a specific scope) are called its static ancestors; the
nearest static ancestor is called a static parent
Variables can be hidden from a unit by having a "closer" variable with the same
name
C++ and Ada allow access to these "hidden" variables
In Ada: unit.name
In C++: class_name::name
Blocks
A method of creating static scopes inside program units--from ALGOL 60
Examples:
C and C++: for (...)
{
int index;
...
}
Ada: declare LCL : FLOAT;
begin
...
end
Evaluation of Static Scoping
Consider the example:
Assume MAIN calls A and B
A calls C and D
B calls A and E
Static Scope Example
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Static Scope Example
Static Scope
Suppose the spec is changed so that D must now access some data in B
Solutions:
Put D in B (but then C can no longer call it and D cannot access A's variables)
Move the data from B that D needs to MAIN (but then all procedures can access
them)
Same problem for procedure access
Overall: static scoping often encourages many globals
Dynamic Scope
Based on calling sequences of program units, not their textual layout (temporal
versus spatial)
References to variables are connected to declarations by searching back through
the chain of subprogram calls that forced execution to this point
Scope Example
MAIN
- declaration of x
SUB1
- declaration of x -
...
call SUB2
...

SUB2
...
- reference to x -
...

...
call SUB1

Scope Example
Static scoping
Reference to x is to MAIN's x
Dynamic scoping
Reference to x is to SUB1's x
Evaluation of Dynamic Scoping:
Advantage: convenience
Disadvantage: poor readability

Scope and Lifetime
Scope and lifetime are sometimes closely related, but are different concepts
Consider a static variable in a C or C++ function

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Referencing Environments
Def: The referencing environment of a statement is the collection of all names that
are visible in the statement
In a static-scoped language, it is the local variables plus all of the visible variables in
all of the enclosing scopes
A subprogram is active if its execution has begun but has not yet terminated
In a dynamic-scoped language, the referencing environment is the local variables
plus all visible variables in all active subprograms

Named Constants
Def: A named constant is a variable that is bound to a value only when it is bound
to storage
Advantages: readability and modifiability
Used to parameterize programs
The binding of values to named constants can be either static (called manifest
constants) or dynamic
Languages:
Pascal: literals only
FORTRAN 90: constant-valued expressions
Ada, C++, and Java: expressions of any kind
Variable Initialization
Def: The binding of a variable to a value at the time it is bound to storage is called
initialization
Initialization is often done on the declaration statement
e.g., Java
int sum = 0;

Summary
The data types of a language are a large part of what determines that
languages style and usefulness
The primitive data types of most imperative languages include numeric,
character, and Boolean types
The user-defined enumeration and subrange types are convenient and
add to the readability and reliability of programs
Arrays and records are included in most languages
Pointers are used for addressing flexibility and to control dynamic
storage management

Case sensitivity and the relationship of names to special words represent design
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issues of names

Variables are characterized by the sextuples: name, address, value, type, lifetime,
scope

Binding is the association of attributes with program entities

Scalar variables are categorized as: static, stack dynamic, explicit heap dynamic,
implicit heap dynamic

Strong typing means detecting all type errors


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