A data type representing whole numbers. Calculations involving only integers are much faster than calculations involving floating-point numbers, so integers are widely used in programming for counting and numbering purposes. Integers can be signed (positive or negative) or unsigned (positive). They can also be described as long or short, depending on the number of bytes needed to store them. Short integers, stored in 2 bytes, cover a smaller range of numbers (for example, -32,768 through 32,767) than do long integers (for example, -2,147,483,648 through 2,147,483,647), which are stored in 4 bytes.