Thread: long char?

  1. #1
    Not stupid, just stupider yaya's Avatar
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    Thumbs up long char?

    I want to convert an int to a char, and then put it into a file but it might be over 255. I also want to retrieve the number later.

    I created a program (a really lengthy one) and it always crashes because I think it's because an unsigned char can only store up to 255. Similar to an int, is there something like a long for a char?

    thanks.

  2. #2
    Frequently Quite Prolix dwks's Avatar
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    Why not keep it as an int? Are you using strings or something?

    You could use more than one char to store the int. Say, something like this (dealing with negative numbers is a pain, so I used unsigned ints):
    Code:
    #include <climits>
    
    char buffer[SIZE];
    int x, number = whatever();
    
    for(x = 0; x < sizeof(unsigned); x ++) {
        buffer[x] = number & UCHAR_MAX;
        number >>= CHAR_BIT;
    }
    To answer your question, there is no long char. Just shorts and ints etc.
    Last edited by dwks; 01-15-2008 at 04:55 PM.
    dwk

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  3. #3
    Algorithm Dissector iMalc's Avatar
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    Typically you just cast a pointer to the int into a pointer to char, and then write out sizeof(int) of them. Similiar for reading back in.
    Assuming you don't need to run on platforms of the other endianness of course.
    The common way nowdays is to just convert everything to text, or even write it out as xml.
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