In computer science, the Boolean (bool) datatype has only two possible values, 'true' or 'false'. And also, in computer science, 1 is true and 0 is false. So why does Boolean exists at all? Why can not we use an integer that can return only two possible values, such as 1 or 0?
For example:
bool mindExplosion = true; // True!
int mindExplosion = 1; // True!!
// Or we can '#define true 1' and it's the same right?
What am I missing?
Why does bool exist when we can use int?
Well, you don't need something as large as an int to represent two states so it makes sense to allow for a smaller type to save space
Why not we use an integer that can return only two possible values, Such as 1 or 0.
That is exactly what bool is. It is an unsigned integer type that represents true (1) or false (0).
Another nice thing about having a specific type for this is that it express intent without any need for documentation. If we had a function like (warning, very contrived example)
void output(T const & val, bool log)
It is easy to see that log is an option and if we pass false it wont log. If it were instead
void output(T const & val, int log)
Then we aren't sure what it does. Is it asking for a log level? A flag on whether to log or not? Something else?