Primitive data types in Java

To deal with numerical information, Java uses six predefined data types, called primitive numerical data types. These are int, long, short, byte, float, and double, and they allow us to represent integer and real numbers.

Java offers two additional non-numeric primitive data types: char (to represent alphanumeric characters and special symbols) and boolean (to represent the truth values true and false).

We will describe these data types in Java by specifying for each of them:

• The domain: the set of possible values that can be represented in the memory of the computer by means of the primitive data type (note that this set will always be finite);
• The set of operations: operators of the programming language that allow us to perform elementary operations on values of the primitive data type (e.g., +, -, /, *, etc.)
• The set of literals: symbols of the language that define values of the primitive data type (e.g., 10, 3.14, 'A', true, etc.)

Moreover, we will specify the size of the memory occupied by a value of a certain data type, which will be significant for the numeric data types.