põhitüübi

Põhitüübi is a term used in programming and computer science to denote the base or primitive data types that are built into a programming language and serve as the building blocks for more complex types. The form is the genitive of põhitüüp (base type). In many languages these base types are distinguished from composite or user-defined types and from objects or references.

The concept covers the fundamental representations that the language defines with fixed semantics, memory footprints, and value ranges. Base types support essential operations such as arithmetic, comparison, and assignment, and they influence performance characteristics and type safety. While most languages provide a core set of põhitüübid, the exact composition varies: some include integers, floating-point numbers, booleans, and characters; others also include pointers or references, and in some ecosystems strings are treated as distinct types or as sequences built from base types.

Examples across languages illustrate variation. In C, common base types include int, char, float, and double, with additional signed or unsigned variants. Java lists int, long, short, byte, float, double, boolean, and char as primitive types. In Python, the language exposes int, float, bool, and complex as core numeric and boolean types within a dynamically typed system. The concept remains central even when languages differ in exact implementations or in how conversions between base types are handled (explicit casts, implicit coercions, or boxing).

Põhitüübid provide the foundation for type systems, with more complex or user-defined types built atop them through arrays, structs or classes, and type inference or generic programming mechanisms.