30-08-2016

Elementary Data Types

Lecture Slides
By
Hammad Mashkoor

Data Objects
A run-time grouping of one or more pieces of
data in a virtual machine
a container for data
it can be
system defined
programmer defined

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Attributes and Bindings

Type
Location
Value
Name

Data Types
A data type is a class of data objects together with
a set of operations for creating and manipulating
them.
Specification of a data type:
attributes
valid values
valid operations

example: specification of an array

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Data Types
Implementation of a data type
storage representation of data object
algorithms of valid operations

Syntactic representation

Elementary Data Types

Elementary data object contains a single
data value.
A class of such data objects and the
valid operations: elementary data type.

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Operations
Signature of an operation:

op name: arg type * arg type * *arg

type --> result type

Operations as Mathematical
Functions
Undefined for certain inputs.
Underflow , overflow

Implicit arguments.
Side effects (implicit results).
Self-modification (history sensitive)

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Implementation
Storage representation.
Attributes:
not stored in the runtime storage representation
run time descriptor

implementation of operations

Declarations
Choice of storage representation
Storage management
Polymorphic operations
Type checking

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Type Checking
Checking that each operation executed by a
program receives the proper number of
arguments of the proper data type.
Dynamic type checking: run-time (type tags
for data objects)
Static type checking: compile-time

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Dynamic Type Checking

Advantage: Flexibility
Disadvantages:
difficult debugging, some paths never checked.
Extra storage for type information during
program execution.
Software simulated type checking, reducing
speed.

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Static Type Checking

Information required:
For each operation, the number, order, and data
types of its arguments and results.
For each variable, the type of data object named.
Always A has the same type (a formal parameter).

The type of each constant data object.

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Strong Typing.
Detect all type errors statically.
A function f , with signature f : S --> R , is
type safe if execution of f cannot generate
a value outside of R .
Type inference.
ML (p.124)

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Type Conversion and Coercion

A type mismatch can cause :
error
coercion (implicit type conversion)

type conversion:
conversion-op : type1 --> type2

coercions if no loss of information.

Widening or promotion
Narrowing

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What about Coercion

for dynamic type checking?
for static type checking?
( Code inserted during compilation)
(p. 126)

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Two Opposed Philosophies

No coercions (Pascal, Ada)
Coercion as a rule (C)

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Assignment
Assignment is the basic operation for
changing the binding of a value to a data
object.
In Pascal:
assignment: integer * integer --> void

In C:
assignment:integer * integer-->integer

(p 127)
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Initialization
An uninitialized variable: an l-value with no
corresponding r-value.
A serious source of programming errors.
Explicit , implicit.

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Elementary Data Types

Numeric Data Types
Integers
Subranges
Floating-point Real Numbers
Fixed-point Real Numbers

Enumerations (one of a small number of

symbolic values)
Booleans
Characters
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Internationalization
Sorting
Case
Scanning direction
Country-specific data format
Country-specific time format

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Structured Data Objects and Data

Types
Structured data object or data structure: a
data object that is constructed as an
aggregate of other data objects, called
components.
Particular aspects of structured data types:
how to indicate the component data objects of a
data structure and their relationships.
storage management.

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Specification of data structure

types
Number of components.
Type of each component.
Names to be used for selecting components.
Maximum number of components.
Organization of the components.

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Number of Components
Fixed size.
Arrays, records , character strings.

Variable size.
Stacks, lists, sets, tables, files, character strings.
Use a pointer data type.
Insert and delete operations.

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Type of Each Component

Homogeneous.
Arrays, character strings, sets, files.

Heterogeneous.
Records, lists.

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Names to be used for selecting

components
Array: an integer subscript or a
sequence of subscripts.
Record: a programmer defined
identifier.
Stacks and files: ?

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Maximum number of components

For a variable size data structure.

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Organization of the components

Simple linear sequence .
Vectors, records, strings, stacks, lists, files.

Multidimensional.
Arrays, record, lists.

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Operations on Data Structures

Component selection operations.
Random selection
Sequential selection.
How you select a component?

Whole-data-structure operations.
Addition(arrays), assignment(records),
union(sets).

Insertion/deletion of components.
Creation/deletion of data structures.
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Implementation of Data Structure

Types
Storage Representation :
affected by
efficient selection of components.
efficient overall storage management.

Includes
storage for the components,
an optional descriptor (for the attributes).

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Storage Representation
Sequential representation.
Descriptor and components.
Fixed size.

Linked representation.
By pointers.
Variable size.

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Implementation of Operations
Sequential representation
base-address-plus-offset using an accessing
formula. (p. 146)

Linked representation
following a chain of pointers

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Storage Management
Access path : its name, a pointer.
Life time of a data object: binding to a
storage location.
Two problems:
garbage
dangling references

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garbage: all access paths to a data object are

destroyed but the data object continues to
exist (the binding of data object to storage
location has not been broken),
dangling references: an access path that
continues to exist after the lifetime of the
associated data object.
(p. 149)
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Type Checking
Existence of a selected component.
Type of a selected component.

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Data Structures
Vectors and Arrays
Records
Variant Records
Lists
Character Strings
Pointers
Sets
Files
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