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Integer constants are numbers used directly in a sketch, like 123
. By default, these numbers are treated as int's but you can change this with the U and L modifiers (see below).
Normally, integer constants are treated as base 10 (decimal) integers, but special notation (formatters) may be used to enter numbers in other bases.
Base Example Formatter Comment 10 (decimal) 123 none 2 (binary) B1111011 capital 'B' only works with 8 bit values characters 0-1 valid 8 (octal) 0173 leading zero characters 0-7 valid 16 (hexadecimal) 0x7B leading 0x characters 0-9, A-F, a-f valid
Decimal is base 10, this is the common-sense math with which you are aquainted.
Example: 101 == 101 decimal ((1 * 10^2) + (0 * 10^1) + 1)
Binary is base two. Only characters 0 and 1 are valid.
Example: B101 == 5 decimal ((1 * 2^2) + (0 * 2^1) + 1)
The binary formatter only works on bytes (8 bits) between 0 (B0) and 255 (B11111111). If it's convenient to input an int (16 bits) in binary form you can do it a two-step procedure such as this:
myInt = (B11001100 * 256) + B10101010; // B11001100 is the high byte
Octal is base eight. Only characters 0 through 7 are valid.
Example: 0101 == 65 decimal ((1 * 8^2) + (0 * 8^1) + 1)
You can generate a hard-to-find bug by (unintentionally) including a leading zero before a constant and having the compiler unintentionally interpret your constant as octal
Hexadecimal (or hex) is base sixteen. Valid characters are 0 through 9 and letters A through F; A
has the value 10, B
is 11, up to F
, which is 15.
Example: 0x101 == 257 decimal ((1 * 16^2) + (0 * 16^1) + 1)
By default, an integer constant is treated as an int with the attendant limitations in values. To specify an integer constant with another data type, follow it with:
Corrections, suggestions, and new documentation should be posted to the Forum.
The text of the Arduino reference is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. Code samples in the reference are released into the public domain.