Int16, Int32, Int64

The Int16, Int32 and Int64 types are aliased to keywords. Typically C# programmers prefer the C-style numeric types, which are easier to read.

When a C# program is compiled, the int type is the same thing as the Int32 type. So int is a form of syntactic sugar (which makes the program easier to read).

Type details

We show the Int16, Int32, and Int64 types are equivalent to more commonly used types. These represent numbers with 2, 4 or 8 bytes.

Int16 -> short
Int32 -> int  
Int64 -> long 

Example

We declare Int16, Int32 and Int64 variables. We print the Type object corresponding to them. Then we do the same thing for the short, int and long types.

using System;

{
    Int16 a = 1;
    Int32 b = 1;
    Int64 c = 1;

    Console.WriteLine(a.GetType());
    Console.WriteLine(b.GetType());
    Console.WriteLine(c.GetType());
}
{
    short a = 1;
    int b = 1;
    long c = 1;

    Console.WriteLine(a.GetType());
    Console.WriteLine(b.GetType());
    Console.WriteLine(c.GetType());
}
System.Int16
System.Int32
System.Int64
System.Int16
System.Int32
System.Int64

Discussion

Should you prefer Int16 to short, Int32 to int, or Int64 to long? In programs where the number of bytes is important, you might prefer Int16, Int32 or Int64.

Int16, Int32 and Int64 are important. The short, int and long types are aliased to them. Programs that specify short, int and long are using Int16, Int32 and Int64.