weak typing

1 definition found

weak typing - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  weak typing
  weakly typed
  
     <programming> Strict enforcement of type rules but with
     well-defined exceptions or an explicit type-violation
     mechanism.
  
     Weak typing is "friendlier" to the programmer than strong typing
     , but catches fewer errors at compile time.
  
     C and C++ are weakly typed, as they automatically coerce
     many types e.g. ints and floats.  E.g.
  
      int a = 5;
      float b = a;
  
     They also allow ignore typedefs for the purposes of type
     comparison; for example the following is allowed, which would
     probably be disallowed in a strongly typed language:
  
      typedef int Date;    /* Type to represent a date */
      Date a = 12345;
      int b = a;       /* What does the coder intend? */
  
     C++ is stricter than C in its handling of enumerated types:
  
      enum animal CAT=0,DOG=2,ANT=3;
      enum animal a = CAT;  /* NB The enum is optional in C++ */
      enum animal b = 1;    /* This is a warning or error in C++ */
  
     (2000-07-04)