Question

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{

    @autoreleasepool {

        NSNumber *str = [NSNumber numberWithChar:'x'];

        NSLog(@"%@",str);

    }
    return 0;
}

This prints the number 120, instead of the character ‘x’. Why does it do this?

Answer 1

There is nothing wrong with this: ASCII code of x is 120 in decimal. The 'x' syntax is a convenient syntax for entering small integer constants using their representation as ASCII characters; other than the syntax, constants in single quotes are regular integers.

If you would like the number re-interpreted as a character, use the corresponding format specifier in the NSLog call, and get the char value from the NSNumber object:

NSNumber *str = [NSNumber numberWithChar:'x'];
NSLog(@"%c", [str charValue]);