How to Declare a 32-bit Integer in C

Question

What\'s the best way to declare an integer type which is always 4 byte on any platforms? I don\'t worry about certain device or old machines which has 16-bit int

Answer 1

Corey's answer is correct for "best", in my opinion, but a simple "int" will also work in practice (given that you're ignoring systems with 16-bit int). At this point, so much code depends on int being 32-bit that system vendors aren't going to change it.

(See also why long is 32-bit on lots of 64-bit systems and why we have "long long".)

One of the benefits of using int32_t, though, is that you're not perpetuating this problem!