<html lang="en"> <head> <title>Data Types - Untitled</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> <meta name="description" content="Untitled"> <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13"> <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> <link rel="prev" href="Getting-Started.html#Getting-Started" title="Getting Started"> <link rel="next" href="Numeric-Data-Types.html#Numeric-Data-Types" title="Numeric Data Types"> <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> <style type="text/css"><!-- pre.display { font-family:inherit } pre.format { font-family:inherit } pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } span.sc { font-variant:small-caps } span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; } span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } --></style> </head> <body> <div class="node"> <a name="Data-Types"></a> <p> Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Numeric-Data-Types.html#Numeric-Data-Types">Numeric Data Types</a>, Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Getting-Started.html#Getting-Started">Getting Started</a>, Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="index.html#Top">Top</a> <hr> </div> <h2 class="chapter">3 Data Types</h2> <p><a name="index-data-types-171"></a> All versions of Octave include a number of built-in data types, including real and complex scalars and matrices, character strings, a data structure type, and an array that can contain all data types. <p>It is also possible to define new specialized data types by writing a small amount of C++ code. On some systems, new data types can be loaded dynamically while Octave is running, so it is not necessary to recompile all of Octave just to add a new type. See <a href="Dynamically-Linked-Functions.html#Dynamically-Linked-Functions">Dynamically Linked Functions</a>, for more information about Octave's dynamic linking capabilities. <a href="User_002ddefined-Data-Types.html#User_002ddefined-Data-Types">User-defined Data Types</a> describes what you must do to define a new data type for Octave. <!-- ov-typeinfo.cc --> <p><a name="doc_002dtypeinfo"></a> <div class="defun"> — Built-in Function: <b>typeinfo</b> (<var>expr</var>)<var><a name="index-typeinfo-172"></a></var><br> <blockquote> <p>Return the type of the expression <var>expr</var>, as a string. If <var>expr</var> is omitted, return an array of strings containing all the currently installed data types. </p></blockquote></div> <ul class="menu"> <li><a accesskey="1" href="Built_002din-Data-Types.html#Built_002din-Data-Types">Built-in Data Types</a> <li><a accesskey="2" href="User_002ddefined-Data-Types.html#User_002ddefined-Data-Types">User-defined Data Types</a> <li><a accesskey="3" href="Object-Sizes.html#Object-Sizes">Object Sizes</a> </ul> </body></html>