Previous
Previous
 
Next
Next

How the Data Type of an Expression is Determined

The data type of an expression is the data type of the resulting value. It might not be the same as the data type of the data objects that constitute the expression; it depends on the data and on the operators and functions that are involved.

In addition, a conditional expression that is indicated by an IF... THEN...ELSE operator is supported. A conditional expression returns a value whose data type depends on the expressions in the THEN and ELSE clauses, not on the expression in the IF clause, which must be BOOLEAN.


Note:

Do not confuse a conditional expression with the IF...THEN...ELSE command in a program, which has similar syntax but a different purpose. The IF statement does not have a data type and is not evaluated like an expression.