shortint

Shortint is a signed 8-bit integer type used in the Pascal family of languages, including Turbo Pascal, Borland Pascal, Delphi, and Free Pascal. It occupies one byte of memory and represents integers in the range -128 to 127. This contrasts with Byte, which is unsigned (0 to 255), and with larger integer types such as SmallInt (−32768 to 32767) and Integer, whose sizes depend on the platform or language version.

In practice, shortint is chosen when memory efficiency matters or when interfacing with binary data, hardware, or specifications that require an 8-bit signed value. Because it is an ordinal type, it participates in normal arithmetic and comparisons, but operations that produce a value outside the -128 to 127 range can overflow, depending on compiler and runtime settings. Many implementations perform automatic type promotion to a larger integral type during expressions to prevent intermediate overflow.

Most Pascal implementations expose the type with variations in naming conventions, such as ShortInt or shortint, but the concept remains the same: an 8-bit signed integer. It is commonly used in arrays, records, or function interfaces where a small signed range is sufficient. As with other ordinal types, values can be cast to and from other integer types, with explicit conversions often required for assignment or arithmetic across different sizes.

Example usage: var s: ShortInt; s := -42;. Shortint is part of the standard type set in many Pascal dialects, preserving compatibility with historical code while remaining available for modern programming needs.