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Software Engineering vocabulary · Programming Concepts

Type inference

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounCommon term

In software engineering, type inference means: Determining the type of a value or expression from code, without requiring the programmer to write that type explicitly.

In Turkish: tür çıkarımı

How it is used

Common in compiler messages and typed language guides. An inferred type is still a type checked by the language.

Example sentences

  1. The compiler used type inference to recognize the list as a list of integers.

    The element values supplied enough information without a written list type.

  2. Type annotations helped where type inference could not choose between two overloads.

    Explicit information resolves ambiguity; inference is not guaranteed to settle every expression.

Common collocations

  • compiler type inference
  • type inference rules
  • data typeThe kind of value a column can hold, such as whole numbers, text, dates or true/false values. It controls what can be stored and how much space it takes.
  • compileTo turn source code written by people into code that a computer can run, using a program called a compiler.

More terms: Programming Concepts

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