Thread: Char and switch output

Hi, could anybody explain to me why the code below outputs "5050"? I'm having huuuge problems understanding the whole deal with char. I just don't get it at all.

The way I see it, "c = '1' + 1;" means c is currently 1, but not the ASCII code, but the actual character 1, because of ' '. Then you add 1 to it, which now makes it character 2.

After that it's a blank. How does it suddenly become 5050?

Thanx!

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
    char c;
    c = '1' + 1;
    switch (c) {
    case '1': printf ("%d", c);
    case '2': printf ("%d", c);
    case '3': printf ("%d", c);break;
    default: printf ("default");
    }
    return 0;
}

Thanx for the answer, grumpy, I think I get it, but let me review, just to be sure.

"c = '1' + 1;" means you add 1 to the character '1' so it becomes '2', and numerical value of '2' --> 50

Then, because "c = '1' + 1;" equals 2, case 2 and case 3 get executed, they output the numerical value of the character '2' because of %d --> 5050

and at the end of the case 3 is a break, so the switch ends. Is that it?

Great! Thanx to both of you.