All BASIC integer data type sizes are accepted by the preprocessor. It is important that the preprocessor knows about integer size, because it generates code to load data in and out of program variables. EQUEL assumes that integer size is four bytes by default. However, you may inform EQUEL of a non-default integer size by using the -i flag on the preprocessor command line. (For more information, see Precompiling, Compiling, and Linking an EQUEL Program.)

For example, the preprocessor command:

causes the preprocessor to treat all variables of type integer as two-byte quantities. If you use the -i flag, be sure to inform the BASIC compiler of the integer size, either by means of an option to the basic command or, in the program, by means of the BASIC options statement.

You can explicitly override the default or the preprocessor -i size by using the BASIC subtype words byte, word or long in the variable declaration, as these examples illustrate:

These declarations create EQUEL integer variables of one, two, and four bytes, respectively, regardless of the default setting.

An integer variable can be used with any numeric-valued object to assign or receive numeric data. For example, such a variable can be used to set a field in a form or to retrieve a column from a database table.