Thread: Simple casting question

I am trying to create a function that receives a char and returns the ascii value. Can I meerly cast the intput char as an int and return it?

Thanks

You could do the following:

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

int main( int argc, char ** argv ){

//this segfaults if you don't specify a character, obviously.

  char ch = *argv[1];

  printf("%X\n", (unsigned short)ch);

  return 0;
}

You should be fine casting it as well, really all you need is the one byte.

Originally Posted by HowardL

Also, when you say "receives a char and returns the ascii value" it is also confusing as far a data terminology.
They are the same!

iMalc touched on this, but they are not necessarily the same. They are only the same on systems that use ASCII or ASCII-compatible encodings like UTF-8. Systems that use, e.g., EBCDIC would need to map those values to their ASCII counterparts.

All values of type char (0-255 decimal) are on the ascii chart.

Also not quite true. Technically ASCII is only values 0-127. Often values 128-255 are called "extended ASCII", but they're not true ASCII and there is nothing standard about it.

values 128-255 are called "extended ASCII", but they're not true ASCII

Right, thanks for correcting that faux pas.
I should limited my comments on ascii.