Char and Int?

[LN7oGNh0]

I know what they are, but why use char for an integer when you could use int? With int, you can just assign a number to it, but with char you have to use an integer cast. Is char able to do some things with numbers better than int?

Thanks.

[Disch]

I know what they are, but why use char for an integer when you could use int?

2 reasons:

1) chars typically consume less memory (1 byte per char instead of 4 or 8 bytes per int). This is largely a nonissue since the extra 3 or so bytes is pretty insignificat... but if you have an array of 100,000 elements, then it can add up.

2) You might intentionally want the variable to be clipped (truncated) to a smaller size. Usually this is a very bad thing, but it can be desirable in some situations (for example, when writing an emulator that simulates 8-bit hardware, you would want math to "roll over" once you cross the 8 bit boundary).

With int, you can just assign a number to it, but with char you have to use an integer cast.

You do not have to cast integers to chars. chars can accept integral values normally:

char foo = 5;
foo += 16;

if(foo == 21)
{
  cout << "this will print";
}

The only time you'd need to cast is when printing it, since chars are printed differently from other integers.

[HellfireXP]

Sometimes it might be useful. Let's say you were writing some kind of program that dealt with hex characters.. 0-9 & A-F (0-15). A char in this case would work better than an integer since the int can't store the letter parts of hex values.

[LN7oGNh0]

Thank you for good answers!