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In computer science, an integer literal is a kind of literal for an integer whose value is directly represented in source code.For example, in the assignment statement x = 1, the string 1 is an integer literal indicating the value 1, while in the statement x = 0x10 the string 0x10 is an integer literal indicating the value 16, which is represented by 10 in hexadecimal (indicated by the 0x prefix).
In computer science, a literal is a textual representation (notation) of a value as it is written in source code. [1] [2] Almost all programming languages have notations for atomic values such as integers, floating-point numbers, and strings, and usually for Booleans and characters; some also have notations for elements of enumerated types and compound values such as arrays, records, and objects.
Python supports normal floating point numbers, which are created when a dot is used in a literal (e.g. 1.1), when an integer and a floating point number are used in an expression, or as a result of some mathematical operations ("true division" via the / operator, or exponentiation with a negative exponent).
Integer literals can be written as regular Arabic numerals, consisting of a sequence of digits and with negation indicated by a minus sign before the value. However, most programming languages disallow use of commas or spaces for digit grouping. Examples of integer literals are: 42; 10000-233000
For example, in the Python programming language, int represents an arbitrary-precision integer which has the traditional numeric operations such as addition, subtraction, and multiplication. However, in the Java programming language , the type int represents the set of 32-bit integers ranging in value from −2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 ...
Integer addition, for example, can be performed as a single machine instruction, and some offer specific instructions to process sequences of characters with a single instruction. [7] But the choice of primitive data type may affect performance, for example it is faster using SIMD operations and data types to operate on an array of floats.
In many object-oriented languages such as Python, even primitive types such as integer numbers are objects. To avoid the overhead of constructing a large number of integer objects, these objects get reused through interning. [2] For interning to work the interned objects must be immutable, since state is shared between multiple variables.
Python, for example, provides a similar structure via PEP3141, [7] citing Scheme's example, though in practice rational numbers (fractions) must be imported from their own module, and both rational and complex numbers use slightly variant syntax from normal number literals, since Python's syntax is less explicit than Lisp's.