Strong vs. weak typing

• Strong typing (type safe)

  • Never apply an operation to an inappropriate data value without signaling an error
  • Never misuse a bit pattern in memory
  • Array bounds checking? Divide-by-zero checking?
  • Ex: Scheme, ML, Haskell, Smalltalk, Java, Prolog, safe subset of Modula-3

• Weak typing: not strong

  • C/C++, Pascal, Fortran, assembly languages

Previous slide

Next slide

Back to first slide

View graphic version