CSP1150/CSP5110:

Programming Principles
Lecture 2: Data Types and Selection
This Lecture

• Data types
– Common data types: integer, float, string and boolean
– Weak/Strong typing and type conversion
– Implicit and explicit conversion
– Static and dynamic typing
– Numeric, string and boolean conversions
Textbook

• Starting Out with Python, 3rd Edition

– Tony Gaddis

• Reading the chapter(s) is required

– Read the indicated chapter(s) before class

• This week covers the following textbook chapter(s):

– Chapter 3 – Decision Structures and Boolean Logic

– Note: You may also wish to revise parts of Chapter 2

regarding data types
Data Types
Data Types

• Last week we introduced the concept of variables

– Assigning a name to data stored in memory for later use

• We also mentioned data types – the “categories” of data

– Integers, floating point numbers (floats), strings…
– The difference can be subtle; 3.14 is a float, '3.14' is a string
– All data (and hence every variable) has a data type

• The data type essentially tells the language/computer how

to interpret the values that are stored in memory
– It determines what can and cannot be done with the data,
e.g. Arithmetic works on integers and floats, but not strings
– Functions often require parameters of a certain data type, e.g.
round() needs a float and an integer, e.g. round(2.327, 2)
 Data Types

• The most common data types are:

Type Description Examples
integer Whole numbers 2, -500, 4294967296
float Numbers with a fractional part 3.14159, -0.3, 25.0
string A sequence of characters 'Hello, World!', '25', ' '
boolean A true or false value True, False

• Some languages divide numeric data types further

– Data types for very large numbers, e.g. “long” in Java, or
numbers with large fractional parts, e.g. “double” in Java

• Some languages, such as C, do not support strings

– Such languages typically have a “character” or “char” data
type, representing a single character. An “array” of multiple
characters can be created when a string is needed
“Weak” and “Strong” Typing

• Different languages take different approaches to whether

data types can be mixed and converted automatically

• “Weakly typed” languages focus on being convenient

– Generally achieved by making it easy to mix different data
types together and convert between them automatically
• The programming language tries to work things out for you

• “Strongly typed” languages focus on being safe

– Generally achieved by limiting the ability to mix different data
types together – conversions must be done explicitly
• The programmer must consider and convert types manually

• Languages allow and disallow things based on their design,

often ending up somewhere between weak and strong
Data Type Conversion and Coercion

• Some values can be converted between different data types

– e.g. 100 (int), 100.0 (float) and '100' or '100.0' (strings)

• All languages provide ways to convert between data types

– e.g. The int(), float() and str() functions in Python
– Some languages use “(typename) value”, e.g. (int) 3.14
– Conversion will fail (or give unexpected results) if it doesn’t
make sense, e.g. trying to convert the string of 'cat' to an int
– Some conversions may involve a loss of data, e.g. 3.14 to int

• Many languages do implicit (automatic) conversion between

compatible data types as needed; This is known as coercion
– Ints are commonly coerced to floats, e.g. 5 + 2.5 = 7.5
– Languages like PHP can coerce strings, e.g. '1' + 2 + 3.4 = 6.4
Static and Dynamic Typing

• “Static typing” is when a language requires you to declare

(and adhere to) the data type of variables, e.g. C and Java
– Assigning a different type will result in an error (or coercion)
– Helps program optimisation and to prevent type-related bugs

• “Dynamic typing” is when a language does not require you

to specify the data type of variables, e.g. Python and PHP
– The variable’s data type is determined by the data assigned
– Convenient, particularly in languages which coerce data types

String value; Java value = 1 # int Python

value = 1; // int into string 1
Error: Incompatible types
value = 'Potato' # string
C 'Potato'
int value;
value = 3.14; // float into int value = -2.74 # float
3 -2.74
Type Conversion Example – Numbers

• What is happening in these examples?

int value1 = 15; Java value1 = 15 Python
int value2 = 20; value2 = 20

float result = value1 / value2; result = value1 / value2

System.out.println(result); print(result)
0.0 0.75

– In Java (and some other “strongly typed” languages),

dividing an integer by another integer results in an integer
• The result was truncated to 0, then stored as a float of 0.0
• No rounding was performed; It simply kept the int portion only

– In Python (and other “weakly typed” languages), the result

of dividing two integers is automatically coerced to a float
Type Conversion Example – Numbers

• In this version, we explicitly convert value1 to a float

int value1 = 15; Java
int value2 = 20;

float result = (float) value1 / value2; // convert value1 to float

System.out.println(result);
0.75

– We use (float) to convert value1, an int, to a float – 15.0

• Java will coerce value2 to match, and give the result as a float

– In Java, the result of any arithmetic is “widened” to the more

encompassing data type; int < long < float < double… e.g.
• int / int = int
• float / int = float
• int / float = float
• float / float = float
Type Conversion Example – String Concatenation

• What is happening in these examples?

total = 79.4 Python

output = 'The total is ' + total

TypeError: Can't convert 'float' object to str implicitly

output = total + ' is the total'

TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'float' and 'str'

– Both of them are trying to combine a string and a float

• In the first one, the error message says that the float cannot be
implicitly converted to a string (in order to attach it to the end)
• In the second one, the error message says that you cannot add a
float and a string together – that’s not how arithmetic works!

– The goal is the same in both – concatenating them together

into a single string, e.g. 'The total is 79.4'
• The solution to both is to convert total to a string: str(total)
Type Conversion Example – String Concatenation

• In this version, we explicitly convert total to a string

total = 79.4 Python

output = 'The total is ' + str(total)

'The total is 79.4'

output = str(total) + ' is the total'

'79.4 is the total'

– We use the str() function to convert total to a string

• Now that there are strings on both sides of the “+”, Python can
determine that you want to concatenate them and do so

– This is another area that different languages handle differently

• We’ll look at some examples on the next slide!
Type Conversion Example – String Concatenation
var num = 79.4; JavaScript $total = 79.4; PHP
alert(num + ' is the total') echo 'The total is ' . $total;
'79.4 is the total' 'The total is 79.4'

var stringNum = '25'; echo "$total is the total";

alert(num + stringNum) '79.4 is the total'
'79.425'

– JavaScript always coerces – PHP avoids ambiguity by

both values to strings and using “.” for concatenation
concatenate them – It can also detect variables
– Even if one of the strings inside strings due to the “$”
contains a number… at start of variable names

total = 79.4 Python

print(total, 'is the total. The total is', total)
'79.4 is the total. The total is 79.4'

– As covered last week, Python’s print() function offers yet

another way of combining strings and numbers…
Type Conversion Example – Boolean Values

• True and False are the only two boolean values, but values
of other data types can be converted to boolean values
– The bool() function converts a value to a boolean value
bool(5) # positive number Python bool(0) # int of 0 Python
True False
bool(-245.271) # negative number bool(0.0) # float of 0.0
True False
bool('False') # string of False bool('') # empty string
True False
bool('0') # string of 0 bool([]) # an empty "list"
True False

• The general rules that most languages follow are:

– Values equivalent to 0, or empty/blank values are False
– All other values are True
• As always, there are subtle differences between languages…
e.g. '0' (zero in a string) is True in Python, but False in PHP
Data Types / Type Conversion Summary

• While there are general concepts such as “weak” and

“strong” typing, our examples have demonstrated that…
– Almost every language handles things slightly differently!

– Regardless of what a language allows and supports,

a good programmer should always consider data types
• Know what type your data is, and how it can be used
• Learn how your language behaves when mixing/coercing types
• Failing to do so can result in bugs and security vulnerabilities

– Always test your code thoroughly to ensure it is working

• Particularly in weakly typed languages or ones you’re new to
• You won’t always receive an error message to let you know!
Conclusion

• It is important to be aware of data types, even in languages

which make it convenient to mix them implicitly
– Know how your language coerces things, what it allows and
doesn’t allow, how to convert things explicitly, etc…

– End of Part A