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Re: When does the type of a character constant make a difference?

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On 24/10/2015 16:05, Philipp Klaus Krause wrote:
> Character constants are of type int, not char in the standard (ignoring
> wide character constants, which might be of other types, such as char).
> But in which situations does this make a real difference? The only one I
> can think of now is generic selections.

I was doing a test but came across something funny (probably just 
another quirk I wasn't aware of).

Although 'A' has type int, it only apparently acquires type int after 
converting from type char.

Because if char is signed, then a value such as '£' (which is code 156 
on my machine, a UK pound sign), has the value -100 even though '£' is 
has type signed int which has enough range to represent it as 156.

So the char type does at least influence the value of a char constant. 
Probably, that is necessary to stop things breaking, but it still seems 
a little odd.

-- 
Bartc

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Thread

When does the type of a character constant make a difference? Philipp Klaus Krause <pkk@spth.de> - 2015-10-24 17:05 +0200
  Re: When does the type of a character constant make a difference? Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-10-24 16:55 +0100
  Re: When does the type of a character constant make a difference? raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-10-24 15:59 +0000
  Re: When does the type of a character constant make a difference? Bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-10-24 17:16 +0100
    Re: When does the type of a character constant make a difference? Richard Damon <Richard@Damon-Family.org> - 2015-10-24 12:41 -0400
    Re: When does the type of a character constant make a difference? Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-10-24 17:50 +0100
    Re: When does the type of a character constant make a difference? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2015-10-24 13:05 -0700
      Re: When does the type of a character constant make a difference? Bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2015-10-24 22:09 +0100
        Re: When does the type of a character constant make a difference? Nobody <nobody@nowhere.invalid> - 2015-10-26 06:15 +0000
          Re: When does the type of a character constant make a difference? raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2015-10-26 09:07 +0000

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