Swift – Integer, Floating-Point Numbers

Integers are whole numbers that can be negative, zero, or positive and cannot have a fractional component. In programming, zero and positive integers are termed as “unsigned”, and the negative ones are “signed”. Swift provides these two categories in the form of 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit format. The integers in Swift follow a naming convention similar to C, i.e., a signed 16-bit integer is of type “Int16”, and an unsigned 8-bit integer is of type “UInt8”.

Integer Bounds

Int: Swift provides an additional integer type, “Int”, which does not require the user to explicitly mention any of the above integer types unless restrictions are imposed.

UInt: Similarly, Swift also provides “UInt”, which also can be used unless any specific type is required.

Note: Both “Int” and “UInt” are platform native. This means, if the platform where the code is run is a 32-bit platform, then “Int” will be the same as “Int32”, and “UInt” will be the same as “UInt 32”. The same is the case with a 64-bit platform.

Additionally, we can run a program in Swift to find the minimum and maximum values of the integer type using the “min” and “max” functions, the corresponding outputs are as follows:

Illustration:

print("Integer Type        Min                    Max")
print("UInt8           \(UInt8.min)         \(UInt8.max)")
print("UInt16          \(UInt16.min)        \(UInt16.max)")
print("UInt32          \(UInt32.min)        \(UInt32.max)")
print("UInt64          \(UInt64.min)        \(UInt64.max)")
print("Int8            \(Int8.min)          \(Int8.max)")
print("Int16           \(Int16.min)         \(Int16.max)")
print("Int32           \(Int32.min)         \(Int32.max)")
print("Int64           \(Int64.min)         \(Int64.max)")

Output:

Integer Type     Min                    Max
UInt8             0                     255
UInt16            0                     65535
UInt32            0                     4294967295
UInt64            0                     18446744073709551615
Int8             -128                   127
Int16            -32768                 32767
Int32            -2147483648            2147483647
Int64            -9223372036854775808   9223372036854775807

Now dwelling on the next numbers, Floating-Point Numbers are the numbers that can represent a fractional component. These can also represent integers in a decimal form. Swift provides two signed types of these numbers:

Examples:

6.89, 3.1466, 6778.0, 0.0, 445.99