PBXB64 Data Types

26 Data Types PBXB64 Additions

PBXB64 supports all standard PowerBASIC types plus 6 new types not found in any other PB compiler: DEC128 (18-digit decimal), RATIONAL (exact arithmetic), VARIANT (COM-compatible), OBJECT (COM reference), GUID (128-bit UUID), and 128/256/512-bit wide integers.

Complete Type Reference

Type	Size	Description	Status
`BYTE`	8-bit	Unsigned integer (0-255)	Standard
`WORD`	16-bit	Unsigned integer (0-65535)	Standard
`INTEGER`	16-bit	Signed integer (-32768 to 32767)	Standard
`LONG`	64-bit	Signed integer (PBXB64 default is 64-bit)	Standard
`DWORD`	32-bit	Unsigned integer	Standard
`QUAD`	64-bit	Signed integer alias	Standard
`SINGLE`	32-bit	IEEE-754 float	Standard
`DOUBLE`	64-bit	IEEE-754 double	Standard
`EXTENDED`	80-bit	Extended precision float	Standard
`CURRENCY`	64-bit	Fixed-point (×10000)	Standard
`CURRENCYX`	16-byte	Extended fixed-point (V12)	NEW
`STRING`	Dynamic	ANSI variable-length string	Standard
`WSTRING`	Dynamic	Wide-character (UTF-16) string	Standard
`STRINGZ`	Dynamic	Null-terminated ANSI string	NEW
`WSTRINGZ`	Dynamic	Null-terminated wide string	NEW
`DEC128`	16-byte	Decimal fixed-point, 18-digit precision	NEW
`RATIONAL`	16-byte	Exact rational (int64 num/den, auto-GCD)	NEW
`VARIANT`	16-byte	COM-compatible (VT_I8, VT_R8, VT_BSTR)	NEW
`OBJECT`	8-byte	COM object reference	NEW
`GUID`	16-byte	128-bit UUID	NEW
`128-bit int`	16-byte	Inline 128-bit arithmetic	NEW
`256-bit int`	32-byte	Inline 256-bit arithmetic	NEW
`512-bit int`	64-byte	Inline 512-bit arithmetic	NEW

DEC128 - 18-Digit Decimal Precision

PBXB64 Addition A 16-byte decimal fixed-point type with 18-digit precision. Ideal for financial calculations where binary floating-point rounding errors are unacceptable.

DEC128 - Financial precision

FUNCTION PBMAIN() AS LONG LOCAL price AS DEC128 LOCAL tax AS DEC128 LOCAL total AS DEC128 price = 19.99 ' Exact decimal tax = 0.07 ' Exact 7% total = price * (1 + tax) ' Result is exact: 21.3893, not 21.389299999999996 PRINT "Total: "; total FUNCTION = 0 END FUNCTION

DEC128 stores values as decimal digits, not binary fractions. 19.99 + 0.01 equals exactly 20.00, not 19.999999999999996.

RATIONAL - Exact Arithmetic

PBXB64 Addition Stores numbers as int64 numerator/denominator pairs with automatic GCD normalization. 1/3 + 1/3 = 2/3 exactly. No rounding, ever.

RATIONAL - Exact fractions

FUNCTION PBMAIN() AS LONG LOCAL a AS RATIONAL LOCAL b AS RATIONAL LOCAL c AS RATIONAL a = 1/3 ' Stored as 1/3, not 0.333... b = 1/6 ' Stored as 1/6 c = a + b ' Result: 1/2 exactly PRINT "1/3 + 1/6 = "; c ' Prints 1/2 FUNCTION = 0 END FUNCTION

RATIONAL automatically reduces fractions (GCD normalization) and supports all arithmetic operations: +, -, *, /, comparison, conversion to/from DECIMAL/DOUBLE.

VARIANT - COM-Compatible Values

PBXB64 Addition Full VARIANT implementation with VT_EMPTY, VT_I8, VT_R8, VT_CY, VT_BOOL, VT_BSTR. Supports scalar, fixed arrays, and dynamic arrays with REDIM PRESERVE.

VARIANT - Dynamic type

FUNCTION PBMAIN() AS LONG LOCAL v AS VARIANT v = 42 ' VT_I8 PRINT VARIANTVT(v) ' 20 (VT_I8) v = "Hello" ' VT_BSTR PRINT VARIANTVT(v) ' 8 (VT_BSTR) v = 3.14159 ' VT_R8 PRINT VARIANTVT(v) ' 5 (VT_R8) FUNCTION = 0 END FUNCTION

VARIANT arrays support element-wise lifecycle management. REDIM PRESERVE performs deep element copy.

Wide Integers - 128 / 256 / 512 Bit

PBXB64 Addition Inline arithmetic on 128, 256, and 512-bit integers. No library calls, no heap allocation - pure register-based operations.

128-bit integer arithmetic

FUNCTION PBMAIN() AS LONG LOCAL a AS __int128 LOCAL b AS __int128 LOCAL c AS __int128 a = 170141183460469231731687303715884105727 ' 2^127-1 b = 2 c = a + b ' 170141183460469231731687303715884105729 PRINT c FUNCTION = 0 END FUNCTION

Wide integers support addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, comparison, and bitwise operations. All done inline in the x64 backend without external libraries.

Try It Yourself

CLI - compile and run

REM DEC128 precision test PBXB64 test_dec128.pb -o test_dec128.exe test_dec128.exe REM RATIONAL exact arithmetic PBXB64 test_rational.pb -o test_rational.exe test_rational.exe REM VARIANT type switching PBXB64 test_variant.pb -o test_variant.exe test_variant.exe REM 128-bit integer PBXB64 test_128bit.pb -o test_128bit.exe test_128bit.exe

All test files are in examples/basic/ - compile and run them to verify.

By The Numbers

23Standard PB types

6PBXB64 additions

512Max bit width

18DEC128 digits

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