Signedness

This applies to variables holding integer values (int, word, byte, etc).

Signedness is a property of variables representing integer numbers. A signed variable can represent both negative values and positive values (and zero of course). An unsigned variable can only represent zero and positive values.

While signed numbers can represent negative numbers, they lose a range of larger numbers which can only be represented with unsigned numbers of the same size (in bits). This is because in signed variables, roughly half the possible values are negative values. Unsigned variables can dedicate all the possible values to the positive number range.

E.g. the int in Bennu is a signed datatype, which can range from -2147483648 to 2147483647. Its unsigned counterpart is the unsigned datatype dword (or unsigned int). This datatype ranges from 0 to 4294967295.