weak typing
<programming> Strict enforcement of type rules but with well-defined
exceptions or an explicit type-violation mechanism.
Weak typing is "friendlier" to the programmer than strong typing, but catches
fewer errors at compile time.
C and C++ are weakly typed, as they automatically coerce many types e.g. ints
and floats. E.g.
int a = 5;
float b = a;
They also allow ignore typedefs for the purposes of type comparison; for
example the following is allowed, which would
probably be disallowed in a strongly typed language:
typedef int Date; /* Type to represent a date */
Date a = 12345;
int b = a; /* What does the coder intend? */
C++ is stricter than C in its handling of enumerated types:
enum animal {CAT=0,DOG=2,ANT=3};
enum animal a = CAT; /* NB The enum is optional in C++ */
enum animal b = 1; /* This is a warning or error in C++ */
(2000-07-04)
Nearby terms:
WE « Weak Head Normal Form « weakly typed « weak
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