Primitive

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What Does Primitive Mean?

Primitive is the simplest type of programming language item. It may also refer to the smallest processing unit accessible by a programmer.

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In a high-level programming language, discrete statements and primitive data types perform a single operation or signify a single data item. Primitives are used to create more complex pieces of code.

Primitive types are also known as built-in types or basic types.

Techopedia Explains Primitive

Primitive types are basic programming language building blocks. Primitive types may or may not have a one-to-one relationship with computer memory objects and are the fastest existing language constructs. A programmer combines primitives to create more complex operations, such as functions, procedures and methods.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.