Since characters are internally represented as integers, any of the integer operations can be applied to them too. However, only a couple of operations make sense to apply to characters—the additive operators (that is, addition and subtraction). While multiplying and dividing characters are legal, those operations never produce any practical results:
- char - char yields int.
- char + int yields char.
- char - int yields char.
Remember that a char is only one unsigned byte, so any addition or subtraction outside of the range of 0..255 will yield unexpected results due to the truncation of high-order bits.
A common use of the addition and subtraction of characters is theconversion of a given ASCII character to uppercase or lowercase. If the character is uppercase, then simply adding 32 to it will give you its lowercase version. If the character is lowercase, then simply subtracting...
