c - Comparison between 'int' and 'char'?

Question

The result of the below code is "No" but I am not sure 'Why' ? Searched in google and found some information but I am confused... Can someone explain me ? Thanks !

int i = 23;
char c = -23;

if (i < c)
{
    printf("Yes");
}
else
{
    printf("No");
}

Answer 1

Unfortunately (imho) char is considered an integer type and you can treat it as an integer type without any explicit cast.

char is a different type than signed char and unsigned char. Whether char is unsigned or signed is implementation defined.

When used in arithmetic operations (including comparisons) integer types with rank less or equal to rank of int undergo integer promotion so your code is equivalent with:

if ((int)i < (int)c)

Another use for char is to access raw memory. C doesn't have a byte type and char is ... the byte type.

---

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Use char for ... well ... characters. For memory access a lot of API uses char*, but if you can you should use unsigned char*. For small integers if you really need to save the space use int8_t and uint8_t which should be aliases for signed char and unsigned char respectively.