Article View: net.lang.c
Article #9695Re: Mavin question -- Char data
From: Kenneth R. Ballou
Date: Sat, 01 Nov 1986 23:51
Date: Sat, 01 Nov 1986 23:51
30 lines
1671 bytes
1671 bytes
In article <4142@ism780c.UUCP> marv@ism780c.UUCP (Marv Rubinstein) writes:
> unsigned char uc;
> char c;
>
> uc > -1 /* evaluates to 0 (for all uc) because -1 is converted to
> unsigned */
>
> c > -1 /* evaluates to 1 (for all c) because c is converted to
> an *integer* whose range is 0..255 and the comparison is
> a signed compare */
>
>Now the question, is this C?
Yes, it is correct. The results are a consequence of the rule that after
automatic widening of types has occurred, if either operand is unsigned,
then the expression is evaluated with unsigned operands. When I was first
learning C, I made the very silly mistake of writing
char ch;
while ((ch = getchar) != EOF)
which would work on some compilers and not on others. Naturally, the diffi-
culty was that in some cases 'char' by default was unsigned, and so the
comparison was done using unsigned arithmetic.
---
Kenneth R. Ballou ...!ucbvax!cartan!brahms!ballou
Dept. of Mathematics
University of California
Berkeley, California 94720
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!cartan!brahms!ballou From: ballou@brahms (Kenneth R. Ballou) Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: Re: Mavin question -- Char data Message-ID: <168@cartanBerkeley.EDU> Date: Sat, 1-Nov-86 18:51:07 EST Article-I.D.: cartanBe.168 Posted: Sat Nov 1 18:51:07 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 3-Nov-86 21:57:35 EST References: <4142@ism780c.UUCP> Sender: daemon@cartanBerkeley.EDU Reply-To: ballou@brahms (Kenneth R. Ballou) Distribution: net Organization: Math Dept. UC Berkeley Lines: 30