> >in C if a varaible is declared, but no type is given, it should default to >int, but in c++ they dropped this 'feature' Hmm. VB developed a data type called 'variant' which is even more loose. It basically gets a type when you get around to assigning data to it, but that type might shift in the future if a better type came along. Very messy stuff to work with, as well as a bit slow.