[Solved] Memory management for int and short datatype in c#

Question

In the vast majority of cases, I wouldn’t call using int instead of short a huge mistake (or even necessarily a mistake at all).

As other people have indicated, the main difference is that an int is 4 bytes and a short is just 2. In most cases, using short instead of int is a microoptimization; there are, of course, a few exceptions (e.g. you’re working in a very memory-constrained environment, you’re doing something that requires an enormous amount of memory and using short instead of int would result in a substantial memory saving, etc.).

This point may be a little more controversial, but in some cases using short rather than int could improve code clarity (if you’re only expecting integers in a relatively small range), but that’s usually not the case.

Accepted Answer

In the vast majority of cases, I wouldn’t call using int instead of short a huge mistake (or even necessarily a mistake at all).

As other people have indicated, the main difference is that an int is 4 bytes and a short is just 2. In most cases, using short instead of int is a microoptimization; there are, of course, a few exceptions (e.g. you’re working in a very memory-constrained environment, you’re doing something that requires an enormous amount of memory and using short instead of int would result in a substantial memory saving, etc.).

This point may be a little more controversial, but in some cases using short rather than int could improve code clarity (if you’re only expecting integers in a relatively small range), but that’s usually not the case.