Char assignment using Octal values
 

Hi,

I'd like to know why assigning a value to char using an octal value sometimes gives a warning message causing incorrect output.

Please look at the following code:


Here c is assigned the character "<" but d gives a warning on compile and will be displayed as the character "1" where as e displays "A". I don't understand why I can have a leading 0 inconjunction with the "\" character sometimes and not other times.

I could just assign the values with leading zeroes and take away the "\" and single quotes but I'd just like to understand my problem to better understand C.

An ASCII character in octal notation may only have 3 digits.

Alright, simple and straight to the point explanation. My C Primer Plus book didn't explicity state this. Thanks! :)

Out of curiosity, how does the compiler differ between "\074", meaning octal character 74, and "\074", meaning a null byte followed by the characters '7' and '4'?

Single quotes = octal number
Double quotes = string

I got that. What I want to know is how you insert characters represented as octal numbers into a string.

Works for me on gcc 3.3.3

This is the first time i've ever seen ooble asking a question...

I got a question too, why is their an octal format and hex format when you can use the decimal format?

Hex format gives you a view of the bit representations once you get the visualization down, because it's a power of 2 and decimal isn't. Octal is the same way, but is primarily a throwback to when busses weren't as wide. Hexadecimal requires that one invent 6 new numeric symbols (if you can call the traditional A-F an invention), whereas, with octal, you just toss a couple of the leftover ones, no imagination necessary.

Wow, a simple question has spurned an interesting conversation. Speaking of which is \377 the highest octal value you can represent since that is all eight bits set to 1?