range of char

[Wolfgang Jeltsch]

Hello,

what does the ANSI C++ standard say about the minimal range of the char
type? Is it guaranteed that char contains at least the numbers from 0 to
255?

Thanks a lot.

Wolfgang

[WW]

Re: range of char

Wolfgang Jeltsch wrote:[color=blue]
> Hello,
>
> what does the ANSI C++ standard say about the minimal range of the
> char type? Is it guaranteed that char contains at least the numbers
> from 0 to 255?[/color]

Nope. It is implementation defined if char is signed or not. And yes, it
is guaranteed to have at least 8 bits, and all of its bits must be used in
the value representation.

--
WW aka Attila

[Buster]

Re: range of char

"Wolfgang Jeltsch" <jeltsch@tu-cottbus.de> wrote
[color=blue]
> what does the ANSI C++ standard say about the minimal range of the char
> type? Is it guaranteed that char contains at least the numbers from 0 to
> 255?[/color]

The C++ standard ISO/IEC 14882:1998 is available from the ISO online
shop, http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/prods-servi...ore/store.html, for
US$18, and worth every penny.

Regards,
Buster.

[tom_usenet]

Re: range of char

On Fri, 03 Oct 2003 19:28:07 +0200, Wolfgang Jeltsch
<jeltsch@tu-cottbus.de> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Hello,
>
>what does the ANSI C++ standard say about the minimal range of the char
>type? Is it guaranteed that char contains at least the numbers from 0 to
>255?[/color]

On many platforms, including IIRC MSVC++, it has the range [-128, 127]
- remember, it can represent the same values as either signed or
unsigned char. However, unsigned char does have at least that range,
since it much have 8-bits or more, and every bit pattern must
represent a unique number (due to the modulo arithmetic rules).

Tom

[Ron Natalie]

Re: range of char


"Wolfgang Jeltsch" <jeltsch@tu-cottbus.de> wrote in message news:blkbau$d26 44$1@ID-77306.news.uni-berlin.de...[color=blue]
> Hello,
>
> what does the ANSI C++ standard say about the minimal range of the char
> type? Is it guaranteed that char contains at least the numbers from 0 to
> 255?[/color]

Absoltutely not. unsigned char has to do at least 0...255, but char can
either be signed or unsigned.