Question

I’m doing some bitshifting work in C, and I’m reading in unsigned char’s. Does every function I use with those variables need to take in an unsigned char as input, or because I loaded the value as unsigned will it automatically keep the first bit positive?

Essentially do I need to do:

int Test1(unsigned char input1)
{
...
}

for everything, or will:

int Test2(char input2)
{
...
}

suffice? Thanks.

Answer 1

int Test2(char input2) might not work. As largest unsigned char is greater than largest signed char(largest positive integer in the range).

But!

Since both unsigned char and signed char are of same size, whether you read it as signed char or unsigned char what is stored in the memory is the same. Only the interpretation is different when you access them.

Also char var does not mean that it is a signed char. It actually depends on compiler flags. Read here.