Java™ How to Program, Seventh Edition

4.13. Primitive Types

The table in Appendix D, Primitive Types, lists the eight primitive types in Java. Like its predecessor languages C and C++, Java requires all variables to have a type. For this reason, Java is referred to as a strongly typed language.

In C and C++, programmers frequently have to write separate versions of programs to support different computer platforms, because the primitive types are not guaranteed to be identical from computer to computer. For example, an int value on one machine might be represented by 16 bits (2 bytes) of memory, and on another machine by 32 bits (4 bytes) of memory. In Java, int values are always 32 bits (4 bytes).

Portability Tip 4.1

Unlike C and C++, the primitive types in Java are portable across ...