What determines the possible range of values for primitive data types in a programming language?

In Java, the possible range of primitive data types is determined by their size in memory (number of bits) and the way numbers are represented (signed or unsigned type).

For example:

• byte — 8 bits, signed, range from -128 to 127
• short — 16 bits, signed, from -32768 to 32767
• int — 32 bits, signed, from -2³¹ to 2³¹-1
• long — 64 bits, signed, from -2⁶³ to 2⁶³-1
• char — 16 bits, unsigned, from 0 to 65535

Thus, the range is determined by the number of bits and whether a signed representation is used (usually an additional bit for the sign). For floating-point numbers, the range is defined by the IEEE 754 standard, which describes the storage format and precision.