Understanding F# Data Types

We are going to explore F# Data types in this article, including the most basic types, such as numbers and strings, as well as the different types of numbers and strings in F#.

Here, we will take a closer look at how these types can be used to represent and manipulate data in various ways.

The F# programming language was created with the intent of being highly expressive and concise. This makes it the ideal language for developing complex applications that rely heavily on data to process.

As one of F#’s strongest features, the powerful type system is one of the most important features. With an abundance of types and constructs, F# provides a robust set of options for working with data in a type-safe and efficient manner.

After finishing this article, you should have a good idea of what the F# Data types are and how you can use them effectively in the development of your own F# applications.

Table Of Content-

F# Data Types

F# offers a set of data types which can be classified in the following ways:

  • Integral types
  • Floating point types
  • Text types
  • Other types

Integral Data Type

Here is a table that includes the integral data types that are available in F#.

Basically, these are types of data that can be expressed as integers.

F# Types Size Range Examples Remarks
sbyte 1 byte -128 to 127 42y

-11y

 8-bit signed integer
byte 1 byte 0 to 255 6uy

5uy

 8-bit unsigned integer
int16 2 bytes -32768 to 32767 4s

9s

 16-bit signed integer
uint16 2 bytes 0 to 65,535 42us

200us

 16-bit unsigned integer
int/int32 4 bytes -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 35

44

 32-bit signed integer
uint32 4 bytes 0 to 4,294,967,295 212u

504u

 32-bit unsigned integer
int64 8 bytes -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 7878L

4548L

 64-bit signed integer
uint64 8 bytes 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 454521UL

544000UL

 64-bit unsigned integer
bigint At least 4 bytes any integer 42I

149999999999

999999999999

9999999I

 arbitrary precision integer

Example: 

//signed 1 byte integer let a = 121.97f let b = 145.58f let c = a + b printfn "a: %f" a printfn "b: %f" b printfn "The sum of single byte signed integers a + b is: %f" c //unsigned 1 byte natural number let x = 5uy let y = 6uy let z = x + y printfn "x: %i" x printfn "y: %i" y printfn "The sum of single byte unsigned integers x + y is: %i" z //signed 2 byte integer let m = 4s let n = 9s let o = m + n printfn "m: %i" m printfn "n: %i" n printfn "The sum of signed 2 byte intergers m + n is: %i" o //signed 4 byte integer let d = 212u let e = 504u let f = d + e printfn "d: %i" d printfn "e: %i" e printfn "The sum of signed 4 byte integers d + e is: %i" f //signed 8 byte integer let g = 7878l let h = 4548l let i = g + h printfn "g: %i" g printfn "h: %i" h printfn "The sum of signed 8 byte integers g + h is: %i" i

Floating Point Data Types

A list of F# floating point data types can be found in the following table.

F# Types Size Range Examples Remarks
float32 4 bytes “±1.5e-45 to ±3.4e38” 35.0F

45.0F

 7 significant digits, 32-bit signed floating point number
float 8 bytes “±5.0e-324 to ±1.7e308” 35.0

45.0

 15-16 significant digits in a 64-bit signed floating point number
decimal 16 bytes “±1.0e-28 to ±7.9e2” 445.0M

1546.0M

 It has 28-29 significant digits and is signed in 128 bits
BigRational At least 4 bytes Any rational number. 78N

1315N

 Random rational number. If you want to use this type, you need to refer to the FSharp.PowerPack.dll library.

Example: 

Example

//32-bit signed let a = 687.145f let b = 687.794f let c = a + b printfn "a: %f" a printfn "b: %f" b printfn "Addition of a + b is: %f" c //64-bit signed let x = 45687.098 let y = 12144.768 let z = x + y printfn "x: %g" x printfn "y: %g" y printfn "Addition of x + y is: %g" z
F# Data Types

Example: 

//32-bit signed let a = 687.145f let b = 687.794f let c = a * b printfn "a: %f" a printfn "b: %f" b printfn "Multiplication of a * b is: %f" c //64-bit signed let x = 45687.098 let y = 12144.768 let z = x * y printfn "x: %g" x printfn "y: %g" y printfn "Multiplication of x * y is: %g" z
Output:
a: 687.145000
b: 687.794000
Multiplication of a * b is: 472614.200000
x: 45687.1
y: 12144.8
Multiplication of x * y is: 5.54859e+08

F# Data Types – Text

Here is a table that shows the types of text data that F# support.
F# Types Size Range Examples Remarks
char 2 bytes U+0000 to U+ffff x Single unicode characters
string 20 + (2 * strings length) bytes 0 to about 2 billion characters “Hello”

“World”

 Unicode text

Example: 

let choice = 'a' let name = "John Wick" let website = "mrexamples" printfn "Choice: %c" choice printfn "Name: %s" name printfn "Website: %s" website

Output

Choice: a
Name: John Wick
Website: mrexamples

Example: 

let choice = 'a' let greet = "Hello from mrexamples" printfn "Choice: %c" choice printfn "%s" greet
Output:
Choice: a
Hello from mrexamples

Other Data Types

This table provides some information on some of the other data types available in F#.

F# Types Size Range Examples Remarks
bool 1 byte True or false are the only two possible values that can be assigned to it true

false

 This function stores boolean values
Example: 

Example

let true_value = true let false_value = false printfn "True Value: %b \n" (true_value) printfn "False Value: %b" (false_value)
Output
True Value: true 
False Value: false
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