Data Type - (Primitive|Native|Built-in)

About

A primitive data type is the basic data type that a language offers.

A primitive type is a type without any substructure. It is then data:

• that is not an class/object
• and has built-in operation (no object methods)

Most of the time:

• a primitive value is represented directly at the lowest level of the language implementation.
• primitives are immutable (cannot be changed).

They are also scalar.

Articles Related

List

Most primitive data type fall under one of this category:

• Character String Types: character
• Numeric types: numeric
• Date-Time Types: date
• Binary Types: Byte (Bit Octet) - Computer storage Unit (8bit)
• Spatial Types: Spatial - Geo (Map|Chart) - Topology

Others:

• Data Type - Boolean
• Data Type - Enum
• Data Type - Pointer (Locator)

Example

• boolean,
• byte,
• short,
• int,
• long,
• char,

Obsession

Primitive obsession is the overuse of primitive types to represent higher-level concepts.

Example with a bounding box represented with:

• primitives

vector<pair<int, int>> polygon = ...
pair<pair<int, int>, pair<int, int>> bounding_box = GetBoundingBox(polygon);
int area = (bounding_box.second.first  - bounding_box.first.first) *
           (bounding_box.second.second - bounding_box.first.seco

• object class

Polygon polygon = ...
int area = polygon.GetBoundingBox().GetArea();

See Code Health: Obsessed With Primitives?

Documentation / Reference

• wiki/Primitive data type