Scala numeric data types: bit sizes, ranges, and docs (Byte, Short, Int, Long, Float, Double, Char)

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: December 28, 2023

Scala FAQ: What are the Scala numeric data types? How many bits do they use to store their data, and what is the range of those data types?

Courtesy of the excellent book, Programming in Scala, here is a list and description of the Scala data types, including bit sizes and data ranges:

Data Type  Definition

Boolean    true or false

Byte       8-bit signed two's complement integer (-2^7 to 2^7-1, inclusive)
           -128 to 127

Short      16-bit signed two's complement integer (-2^15 to 2^15-1, inclusive)
           -32,768 to 32,767

Int        32-bit two's complement integer (-2^31 to 2^31-1, inclusive)
           -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647

Long       64-bit two's complement integer (-2^63 to 2^63-1, inclusive)
           -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to +9,223,372,036,854,775,807

Float      32-bit IEEE 754 single-precision float
           1.40129846432481707e-45 to 3.40282346638528860e+38 (positive or negative)

Double     64-bit IEEE 754 double-precision float
           4.94065645841246544e-324 to 1.79769313486231570e+308 (positive or negative)

Char       16-bit unsigned Unicode character (0 to 2^16-1, inclusive)
           0 to 65,535

String     a sequence of Chars

(I found the numeric range values on this page.)

Notes about Scala data types

The String class resides in the package java.lang, and all these other types are in the package scala.

You may have noticed that these data types in Scala have the exact same range as the corresponding data types in Java. This makes it easy to convert these Scala types to their corresponding Java primitive types.

Also interesting to note, if you're into specifics: Collectively, Byte, Short, Int, Long, and Char are called integral types. The integral types plus Float and Double are called numeric types. (That was again courtesy of the book, Programming in Scala.)