Converting words into ASCII values

I was just wondering whether it is possible to convert characters into their ASCII values or values in the alphabet easily without needing a load of if statements.

The only way I can think of doing it is the afformentioned by using an if and 25 else if statements.

Thanks

char a = 'a';
int x = a;
printf ("Char %c - ASCII %x", a, x);

thanks I thought it would error because of the different data types.

C is not exactly built around type-safety. A char is not much more than an 8 bit signed integer.