problem in understanding operations between chars

[M Mistroni]

hi all,
i m going thru scjp 1.5 exams, i have produced a class that was mentioned in a question
here it is:

import java.util.*;
 
class Comp2 {
public static void main(String... args) {
String[] words = {"Good","Bad","Ugly"};
Comparator<String> best = new Comparator<String> () {
public int compare(String s1, String s2) {
System.err.println("Comparing:" + s1 + " vs " + s2);
System.err.println(s2.charAt(1) + "-" + s1.charAt(1) + "=" + (s2.charAt(1) - s1.charAt(0)));
return s2.charAt(1) - s1.charAt(0);
}
};
 
Arrays.sort(words, best);
for(String w : words)
System.out.print(w);
 
System.out.println("----");
System.out.println(words[0]);
System.err.println('a');
System.err.println('o');
}
}

here's the output
Comparing:Good vs Bad
a-o=26
Comparing:Good vs Ugly
g-o=32
Comparing:Bad vs Ugly
g-a=37
UglyBadGood----
Ugly
a
o

i can't figure out why 'a' - 'o' will produce 26.. where does that number come from?

anyone could help?

thanks and regards
marco

[Henry Wong]

i can't figure out why 'a' - 'o' will produce 26.. where does that number come from?

The number is the difference between the unicode for 'a' and the unicode for 'G'. Note that you formula for the value is different than what you showed on the left of the equals.

Henry