In an airline reservation system, the number of available seats in an airplane is required. Which data type should be used to store this value?

In an airline reservation system, the number of available seats in an airplane is a whole number, meaning it cannot have fractions or decimals. For example, you cannot have 1.5 or 2.7 seats available; it has to be a clear count like 1, 2, 3, and so on. The most appropriate data type to store this kind of value is an integer, which is specifically designed to hold whole numbers.

Using an integer not only reflects the nature of the data accurately, but it also optimizes memory usage, as integers typically take up less space than floating-point numbers like doubles and floats. On the other hand, while long can accommodate larger whole numbers than standard integers, it is unnecessary for this context since the number of airplane seats is generally not large enough to exceed the limits of an integer. Therefore, choosing an integer is the most efficient and effective way to represent the number of available seats in this system.