Longint

Longint is a signed integer type used in several programming languages, most notably Pascal and its descendants such as Turbo Pascal, Delphi, and Free Pascal. In these languages, Longint denotes a fixed-width integer, typically 32 bits wide. The exact width and naming can vary by compiler, but longint commonly refers to a 32-bit signed integer.

Range and representation: As a 32-bit signed value, longint can represent integers from -2147483648 to 2147483647. It uses two's complement representation on modern hardware. On some other language families, the term long int (with a space) refers to the signed long integer and its width depends on the platform, for example being 32-bit on many 32-bit systems and 64-bit on LP64 platforms. This means code written with Longint in Pascal may not be directly portable to environments that use a different width for long int.

Usage and portability notes: Longint is used for arithmetic, indexing, file I/O, and interfacing with APIs that require 32-bit integers. When portability across platforms or languages is important, programmers may prefer explicit fixed-width types such as int32 or Int64, depending on the language, to guarantee width and signedness. In modern Pascal dialects, Longint remains a 32-bit type, while other types such as Int64 or UInt32 offer larger or different ranges.