Introduction to DataTypes and Values
Values, Types, and Operators
"Below the surface of the machine, the program moves. Without effort, it expands and contracts. In great harmony, electrons scatter and regroup. The forms on the monitor are but ripples on the water. The essence stays invisibly below".
- Master Yuan-Ma, The Book of Programming
Inside the computer's world, there is only data. You can read data, modify data, create new data – but that which isn't data cannot be mentioned. All this data is stored as long sequences of bits and is thus fundamentally alike.
Bits are any kind of two-valued things, usually described as zeros and ones. Inside the computer, they take forms such as a high or low electrical charge, a strong or weak signal, or a shiny or dull spot on the surface of a CD. Any piece of discrete information can be reduced to a sequence of zeros and ones and thus represented in bits.
For example, we can express the number 13 in bits. It works the same way as a decimal number, but instead of 10 different digits, you have only 2, and the weight of each increases by a factor of 2 from right to left. Here are the bits that make up the number 13, with the weights of the digits shown below them:
0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
So that's the binary number 00001101. Its non-zero digits stand for 8, 4, and 1, and add up to 13.
Source: Marijn Haverbeke, https://eloquentjavascript.net/01_values.html
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