Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!uflorida!novavax!twwells!bill
From: bill@twwells.uucp (T. William Wells)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: type of character constants
Keywords: character constants
Message-ID: <766@twwells.uucp>
Date: 11 Mar 89 11:34:21 GMT
References: <13068@steinmetz.ge.com> <102@servio.UUCP> <10138@socslgw.csl.sony.JUNET> <1783@dlvax2.datlog.co.uk> <3711@xyzzy.UUCP> <1644@vicorp.UUCP>
Reply-To: bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells)
Organization: None, Ft. Lauderdale
Lines: 21
Summary:
Expires:
Sender:
Followup-To:
Distribution:

In article <1644@vicorp.UUCP> charlie@vicorp.UUCP (Charlie Goldensher) writes:
: So what does it matter if a character constant is of type char or of
: type int?  If it is of type char, it will be *converted* to type int
: in any expression in which it is used.  And if it is of type int it
: will be implicitly cast to type char if it assigned to a variable of
: type char.
:
: I don't care how the compiler writer chooses to implement it internally
: as long as they follow the appropriate conversion rules.
:
: Is there some reason I *should* care?

There is a subtle difference. If 'c' is an integer constant, '\377'
represents the value 255. If, on the other hand, it is a char
constant, and characters sign extend, it represents -1.

---
Bill
{ uunet | novavax } !twwells!bill
(BTW, I'm going to be looking for a new job sometime in the next
few months.  If you know of a good one, do send me e-mail.)