CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++
Someone
Someone

Reputation: 126

Create new data type in C++

Is there a way to create a new data type in C++.
I have some variables whose values are never going to be >100. So, I want to create a new datatype to store values only between 0 and 100 which would also take up less memory. I could use
unsigned short smth = 100;
but unsigned short also takes up 16 bits and there will be a lot of unused values. Something like the byte datatype in java is needed.

16 bits probably won't matter but want to extract all the juice of performance from my application.

If it is not possible in C++ is there any way of doing it in C and implementing in C++ code?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 726

Answers (2)

Raildex
Raildex

Reputation: 4827

If you want to "extract all the juice of performance from your application", you should not use other datatypes than types that are the size of a register (which may be int in your implementation).

If you don't care about portability, I recommend using uint_fast8_t.
It is atleast 8 bits, but the implementation uses the faster type which can be bigger

The other answers - encapsulating the functionality into a class, are also valid and should be combined with my advice.

Upvotes: 3

Remy Lebeau
Remy Lebeau

Reputation: 598424

For the storage, you can use (unsigned) char, or better (u)int8_t. Or even std::byte in C++17 and later.

And then you can wrap that inside a class or struct that restricts the values that can be assigned to it.

Upvotes: 1

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