Static/Dynamic vs Strong/Weak

terminology strong-typing static-typing dynamic-typing weak-typing
Dan Revell picture Dan Revell · Feb 28, 2010 · Viewed 70.6k times · Source

I see these terms bandied around all over the place in programming and I have a vague notion of what they mean. A search shows me that such things have been asked all over stack overflow in fact. As far as I'm aware Static/Dynamic typing in languages is subtly different to Strong/Weak typing but what that difference is eludes me. Different sources seem to use different meanings or even use the terms interchangeably. I can't find somewhere that talks about both and actually spells out the difference. What would be nice is if someone could please spell this out clearly here for me and the rest of the world.

Answer

Dario picture Dario · Feb 28, 2010

  • Static/Dynamic Typing is about when type information is acquired (Either at compile time or at runtime)

  • Strong/Weak Typing is about how strictly types are distinguished (e.g. whether the language tries to do an implicit conversion from strings to numbers).

See the wiki-page for more detailed information.

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