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Demotion of Integers

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ANSI 3.2.1.2 The result of converting an integer to a shorter signed integer, or the result of converting an unsigned integer to a signed integer of equal length, if the value cannot be represented

When a long integer is cast to a short, or a short is cast to a char, the least-significant bytes are retained.

For example, this line

short x = (short)0x12345678L;

assigns the value 0x5678 to x, and this line

char y = (char)0x1234;

assigns the value 0x34 to y.

When signed variables are converted to unsigned and vice-versa, the bit patterns remain the same. For example, casting -2 (0xFE) to an unsigned value yields 254 (also 0xFE).

See also

Integers