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iOS Objective-C Basics (Retired) Pointers and Memory Arrays, Length, and Size

Posted by Jacob Savage
Jacob Savage
12,631 Points

Why does a float consume 4 bytes?

As we are calculating the length of an array, we first need to gather the length of a float. I did some experimenting on my own, to see if I could get this value to change, but it seems that the length of a float is a constant 4 bytes. Can anybody give any more explanation into this? Why is a float composed of 4 bytes? What if the number that it is storing has significantly more than 4 digits? Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

1 Answer

Stone Preston
Stone Preston
42,016 Points
Stone Preston
Stone Preston
42,016 Points

just because a float has a size of 4 bytes doesnt mean it can only store 4 digits. It can store a number that is 4 bytes in size, not digits. If you wish to store a number that is larger than 4 bytes, you would need to use a double, which is 8 bytes so it can store even larger numbers, and if that doesnt work you can use a long double which stores even more. Datatype size also depends on your machine (32bit vs 64bit).

see this for an in depth tutorial on primitive types.