In Standard ML, constants (like 13, 0w13, 13.0) are overloaded, meaning that they can denote a constant of the appropriate type as determined by context. SML defines the overloading classes Int, Real, and Word, which denote the sets of types that integer, real, and word constants may take on. In MLton, these are defined as follows.

Int	Int2.int, Int3.int, ... Int32.int, Int64.int, Int.int, IntInf.int, LargeInt.int, FixedInt.int, Position.int
Real	Real32.real, Real64.real, Real.real, LargeReal.real
Word	Word2.word, Word3.word, ... Word32.word, Word64.word, Word.word, LargeWord.word, SysWord.word

The Definition allows flexibility in how much context is used to resolve overloading. It says that the context is no larger than the smallest enclosing structure-level declaration, but that an implementation may require that a smaller context determines the type. MLton uses the largest possible context allowed by SML in resolving overloading. If the type of a constant is not determined by context, then it takes on a default type. In MLton, these are defined as follows.

Int	Int.int
Real	Real.real
Word	Word.word

Other implementations may use a smaller context or different default types.

Also see

• discussion of overloading in the Basis Library

Examples

• The following program is rejected.

  structure S: 
     sig 
        val x: Word8.word 
     end =
     struct
        val x = 0w0
     end
  

  The smallest enclosing structure declaration for 0w0 is val x = 0w0. Hence, 0w0 receives the default type for words, which is Word.word.