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From: Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@geek-central.gen.new_zealand>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject: Re: Why No Supplemental Characters In Character Literals?
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Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:59:26 +1300
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In message <iig6j2$dul$2@news.albasani.net>, Lew wrote:

> On 02/04/2011 12:59 AM, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>
>> Why was it decreed in the language spec that characters beyond U+FFFF are
>> not allowed in character literals, when they are allowed everywhere else
>> (in string literals, in the program text, in character and string values
>> etc)?
> 
> Because a 'char' type holds only 16 bits.

No it doesn’t. Otherwise you wouldn’t be allowed supplementary characters in 
character and string values. Which you are.