Data Types and Variables

In programming, each variable stores a certain value of a particular type. For example, data types can be: number, letter, text (string), date, color, image, list and others. Here are some examples of data types:

• integer: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 20, …
• float: 0.5, 3.14, -1.5, …
• character (symbol): 'a', 'b', 'c', '@', 'X', …
• text (string): "Hello", "Hi", "How are you?", …
• day of week: Monday, Tuesday, …, Sunday
• date and time: 14-June-1980 6:30:00, 25-Dec-2017 23:17:22

Video: Data Types and Variables

Watch a video lesson about declaring variables: https://youtu.be/p4tedmW8dyw.

Examples: Data Types and Variables

In C# we can use data types to define variables as follows:

int a = 5;
string str = "Some text";
char letter = 'A';
float f = 4.2;

In C#, once a variable is defined, it can change its value many times, but it cannot change its data type later. Variables may hold only data of their type.

Declaring and Using Variables

We know that computers are machines that process data. All data is stored inside the computer memory (RAM) in variables. The variables are named areas in the memory, which keep a certain data type, for example a number or a text. Each of the variables in C# has a name, a type and a value. Here is how we would declare a variable and assign it with a value at the same time:

Video: Declaring and using Variables

Watch a video lesson about declaring variables: https://youtu.be/g-dG5GobHg0.

Examples: Declaring and using Variables

Example of declaring a variable:

var count = 5;

After being processed, data is again stored in variables (in some place in the memory saved for our program):

count = count + 1;

After the above code the variable count changes it value and increases by 1.