CS201

Programming Fundamentals

Char Data Type

Outline

• Char data type

• Escape Sequences
• Type casting

Text book 9.1, 6.3.6

Char Data Type
● Is a built-in data type to represent a single character from
computer's character set
● Most commonly used standard character set is ASCII
● Letters, digits, symbols, punctuation marks, control characters
(e.g. end of line, end of file, etc.)
● Each character in ASCII set has a numeric code (0 .. 255)
● See Table F.3 in page 763 for ASCII table

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Char Data Type ASCII Table

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Char Data Type ASCII Table
• Each character occupies one byte. That is why character codes are between 0 and 255

• First 32 characters ( 0 .. 31) are non-printable control characters such as eof

• Blank character has the code 32

• Uppercase letters are consecutive and ordered in ASCII set

Code for 'A' is 65, 'B' is 66, 'C' is 67, … 'Z' is 90

• Similarly, lowercase letters are also ordered and consecutive

Code for 'a' is 97, … 'z' is 122

• Similarly, digit characters are also ordered and consecutive

Code for '0' is 48, '1' is 49, … '9' is 57

• Do not memorize the codes for letters and digits;

you can do character arithmetic
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Why ASCII has 128 characters?
● Historical Design: ASCII (American Standard Code for Information
Interchange) was developed in the early 1960s to represent English text in
computers and communication systems which uses 7 bits in that time.
ASCII was designed for simplicity and efficiency in its era. 8 bits (1 byte)
became the standard unit of storage later, leading to the creation of
extended ASCII.

● These 128 characters include: Control characters (0–31 and 127): For
controlling hardware (e.g., newline, tab). Printable characters (32–126):
Letters, digits, punctuation, and symbols.

● Extended ASCII (256 characters) (0–255), it is not the same as the original
ASCII. The limitation of 128 characters in standard ASCII was a deliberate
choice based on the needs and technical limitations of its time.

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Char Data Type
● Character variables are defined using the type identifier char
char a, ch, letter;
● Character literals are represented within single quotes
'A' '3' '.' 'f'
● Pay attention to difference between strings with single letter and
chars
● "A" versus 'A'
● First one is a string literal, second one is a character literal
● String variables (objects) has several private data members even if it
has a single character in it; however, char variables occupy just one
byte

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Character Arithmetic
● If you compare two characters (or a character with an integer)
character codes are used in comparison

● If you apply an arithmetic operator (+ - * / %) to a character,

integer code of the character is processed
● This is an implicit type casting (conversion) similar to bool

● And if you process the result of such an operation as character,

a reverse conversion is automatically performed
● You can also process the result as integer
(actually this is the default behavior)

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Character Arithmetic
● Example: The value of 'A' + 2 is
• 'C' if you process as a char
(you do not have to know the codes in order to reach this
result)
• 67 if you process as integer or if you do not mean any
type

● Example: What is the value of 'Z' - 'A’ ?

• 25
(you do not have to know the codes of A and Z

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Character Arithmetic
● Example: The value of 'A' + 2 is
• 'C' if you process as a char
(you do not have to know the codes in order to reach this
result)
• 67 if you process as integer or if you do not mean any
type

● Example: What is the value of 'Z' - 'A’ ?

• 25
(you do not have to know the codes of A and Z

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Character Arithmetic - Example
● Suppose digitch is a char variable and its content is a digit
character (between '0' and '9'). How can you obtain that digit
character's numeric equivalent in an int variable digitnum?

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Character Arithmetic - Example
● Suppose digitch is a char variable and its content is a digit
character (between '0' and '9'). How can you obtain that digit
character's numeric equivalent in an int variable digitnum?

digitnum = digitch - '0';

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Character Arithmetic - Example
● Write a function that takes a character parameter and returns
the uppercase equivalent of it if parameter is a lowercase letter.
If parameter is not a lowercase letter, function returns it
unchanged.

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Character Arithmetic - Example
● Write a function that takes a character parameter and returns
the uppercase equivalent of it if parameter is a lowercase letter.
If parameter is not a lowercase letter, function returns it
unchanged.

char toUpper(char ch) {

if (ch >= 'a' && ch <= 'z') // if lowercase

{
return ch + ('A' - 'a'); // return its uppercase
}
return ch; // otherwise return parameter unchanged
}

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Escape Sequences in C++
● Special symbols for some characters (mostly for control
characters) to be used in character and string literals
only

● Not to be used while entering input

● Full list is in Table 4.1 (page 103) or Table A.5 (page
716)

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Escape Sequences in C++
● Some escape sequences
\n newline character
\t tab (used for aligned output)
\a bell
\" double quote
\' single quote
\\ backslash

● Example follows. What is the output?

cout << "\"\\\n\"\"\n\\";

"\
""
\
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Escape Sequences in C++
● If you want to represent a non-printable character (such as new
line) in a string or character literal, you have to use non-
printable escape sequences

"bla bla \n bla"

'\n'

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Escape Sequences in C++
● For printable ones, you may use escape sequences whenever needed
● You may or may not use escape sequence to represent a double
quote character in a char literal
● That means '\"' and '"' are the same
● You may or may not use escape sequence to represent a single
quote character in a string literal
● That means "bla \' bla" and "bla ' bla" are the same
● However, you have to represent a double quote in a string literal as
an escape sequence; similarly, you have to represent a single quote
in a char literal as an escape sequence
● To represent a backslash, you always have to use escape sequence
in both char and string literals

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Type Casting
● Conversion of an expression to another type
● Among built-in types like double, int, char, bool
● String cannot be used in type casting
● Syntax
type_name (expression)
● First expression is evaluated, then conversion is done

● Examples
cout << double (3) / 4;
● Output is 0.75
● First 3 is converted into double (3.0), then divided by 4
cout << 3 / 4;
● Without casting, integer division, output is 0
cout << double (3 / 4);
● First 3 / 4 is evaluated to 0, then result is converted
● Output is 0 2
Type Casting Examples
● Real division using two integers
int a, b;
double div;
...
div = double (a) / b;
● Conversion from double to int
cout << int (3.9);
● Double value is truncated
● Output is 3
● Conversion from signed to unsigned integers
cout << unsigned int (-100);
● Output is NOT 100, output is 4294967196
● The bit sequence to represent –100 is the same as the one of 4294967196
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Type Casting Examples
● Conversion from int to char
int i = 72;
cout << char (i);
● Output is H
● It is the character with code 72
● Complex example: what is the value of the following expression?
3 + double (62 * (int ('C') - int ('A'))) / 5

124
124.0

24.8

27.8 2