16 bit Int vs 32 bit Int vs 64 bit Int
I've been wondering this for a long time since I've never had "formal" education on computer science (I'm in highschool), so please excuse my ignorance on the subject.
On a platform that supports the three types of integers listed in the title, which one's better and why? (I know that every kind of int has a different length in memory, but I'm not sure what that means or how it affects performance or, from a developer's view point, which one has more advantages over the other).
Thank you in advance for your help.
Answer
"Better" is a subjective term, but some integers are more performant on certain platforms.
For example, in a 32-bit computer (referenced by terms like 32-bit platform and Win32) the CPU is optimized to handle a 32-bit value at a time, and the 32 refers to the number of bits that the CPU can consume or produce in a single cycle. (This is a really simplistic explanation, but it gets the general idea across).
In a 64-bit computer (most recent AMD and Intel processors fall into this category), the CPU is optimized to handle 64-bit values at a time.
So, on a 32-bit platform, a 16-bit integer loaded into a 32-bit address would need to have 16 bits zeroed out so that the CPU could operate on it; a 32-bit integer would be immediately usable without any alteration, and a 64-bit integer would need to be operated on in two or more CPU cycles (once for the low 32-bits, and then again for the high 32-bits).
Conversely, on a 64-bit platform, 16-bit integers would need to have 48 bits zeroed, 32-bit integers would need to have 32 bits zeroed, and 64-bit integers could be operated on immediately.
Each platform and CPU has a 'native' bit-ness (like 32 or 64), and this usually limits some of the other resources that can be accessed by that CPU (for example, the 3GB/4GB memory limitation of 32-bit processors). The 80386 processor family (and later x86) processors made 32-bit the norm, but now companies like AMD and then Intel are currently making 64-bit the norm.