# Data type: very high integer
**URL:** https://discourse.processing.org/t/data-type-very-high-integer/44680
**Category:** Beginners
**Created:** [July 2, 2024, 8:44am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/data-type-very-high-integer/44680 "2024-07-02T08:44:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Chrisir](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Chrisir)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2024, 8:44am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/data-type-very-high-integer/44680/1 "2024-07-02T08:44:08Z")
simple question:
we just try to calculate the length of a lightyear.
using int a = 300000 \* // m/s — error ---- km/s
60\*60 \* // to km/h
24 \* // day
365; // year
But rounding error occurs
Unclear why
(I understand int is only up to 32000)
So I’d like to ask: which data type I need to use, long, double or Integer?
I need longInt in theory, what is this called?
---
### Author:  [@quark](https://discourse.processing.org/u/quark)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2024, 9:31am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/data-type-very-high-integer/44680/3 "2024-07-02T09:31:25Z")
An int can store integers approximately +/-2000000000 so a long data type might be suitable but if you want fractional values the double data type gives 15/16 significant digits
---
### Author:  [@Chrisir](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Chrisir)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2024, 9:38am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/data-type-very-high-integer/44680/4 "2024-07-02T09:38:16Z")
No fractionally needed
But using text() command I receive a rounding error before the . dot (!)
---
### Author:  [@Chrisir](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Chrisir)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2024, 9:40am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/data-type-very-high-integer/44680/5 "2024-07-02T09:40:02Z")
> [@quark](#):
>
> approximately +/-2000000000
The result is 9 trillion kilometers so this could be the
issue
Do we have a longer integer data type
---
### Author:  [@quark](https://discourse.processing.org/u/quark)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2024, 9:51am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/data-type-very-high-integer/44680/6 "2024-07-02T09:51:50Z")
Shouldn’t be a dot with an integer value probably due to some data type conversion by Processing
Use long instead of int for bigger values
---
### Author:  [@quark](https://discourse.processing.org/u/quark)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2024, 9:54am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/data-type-very-high-integer/44680/7 "2024-07-02T09:54:09Z")
If you use long then I suggest you use native Java to convert to a string before passing to text
---
### Author:  [@glv](https://discourse.processing.org/u/glv)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2024, 10:43am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/data-type-very-high-integer/44680/8 "2024-07-02T10:43:13Z")
Hello,
I have run into this issue before.
Units for speed of light corrected.
I changed everything to meters.
Don’t forget the L.
References:
- [Speed of light - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light)
- [Advanced Java/Declaring float and long Literals - Wikiversity](https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Advanced_Java/Declaring_float_and_long_Literals)
- [Primitive Data Types (The Java™ Tutorials \> Learning the Java Language \> Language Basics)](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/datatypes.html)
- [Java Data Types](https://www.w3schools.com/java/java_data_types.asp)
`:)`
---
### Author:  [@Chrisir](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Chrisir)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2024, 3:08pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/data-type-very-high-integer/44680/9 "2024-07-03T15:08:15Z")
Thanks.
The reason for the error was the internal conversion
to String performed by the text() command.
When you convert the value as shown (or convent before the
text() command and bring the result in a new String var)
and use text() then, you are good.