sizeof character constants in C++

[Kavya]

In C, the character constants are of type int but in C++ character
constant are of type char. Why is there an incompatibilty here when C++
was designed to be a lot compatible to C. Shouldn't such small things
be same in both the languages?

 

[Pete Becker]

In C, the character constants are of type int but in C++ character
constant are of type char. Why is there an incompatibilty here

Briefly, function overloading.

std::cout << 'a' << 3 << '\n';

If char constants had type int, all three insertions would be inserting
int values.

--

-- Pete

Author of "The Standard C++ Library Extensions: a Tutorial and
Reference." For more information about this book, see
www.petebecker.com/tr1book.

 

[miteshrajpandey]

char variables in C and C++ are compatible (in fact they are same). We
do not use literals directly but only through variables. So i think
there is no requirement for the literals to be compatible between C and
C++. Also literals are usually declared in const memory area.