casting

[sonali rao]

Consider the following.
char c='a';
char d=c+1; //line 1.
char e=4+4; //line 2.
I know line 1 gives error as it requires explicit casting.
I do not understand why line 2 does not give an error. 4+4 results in 8 which is of type int. why does it not require an explicit casting?

[Vad Fogel]

4 is an int literal and also a compile time constant. When you add two constants to each other, the result is a constant as well. In this case, if the resulting int const fits into char, the compiler allows such an assignment.

[Harwinder Bhatia]

Sonali
Btw, if you declare c as final, line 1 would compile fine too.
Cheers
Harwinder

[Vad Fogel]

Originally posted by Harwinder Bhatia:
Sonali
Btw, if you declare c as final, line 1 would compile fine too.
Cheers
Harwinder

The same rule applies: if the compiler figures out the assignment as a result of operations on compile time constants fitting the size to the left, it'll allow it.