Character Arithmetic in C and C++

In C and C++, character arithmetic involves arithmetic operations using characters and symbols. Characters are like numbers beneath, even though they are typically used for text. It implies that there are intriguing ways to deal with characters and to add and subtract from them. In this article, you will learn about how to use characters in C and C++ for computations and how these languages manage characters internally.

What is Character Arithmetic?

In C and C++, character arithmetic is a method for carrying out mathematical operations on characters, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. ASCII values translate characters into their equivalent numeric values to perform these operations.When using these programming languages' strings or characters, this method comes in quite handy. Characters can be treated like numbers in order to conduct mathematical operations on them, which opens up a variety of text processing and calculation tasks.

Example: 1

Let us take an example to illustrate the Character arithmetic operation in C.

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char ch1 = 125, ch2 = 10;
ch1 = ch1 + ch2;
printf("%d\n", ch1);
printf("%c\n", ch1 - ch2 - 4);
return 0;
}

Output:

In C/C++, the format specifiers %d and %c are used to print integer and character values. It's crucial to remember that the specifier, %c, interprets the supplied number as a character's ASCII code. The range of ASCII codes that correspond to letters, numbers, symbols, and control characters for normal characters is generally 0 to 127.

As a result, if you supply an integer number larger than 127 when using %c, it cannot represent a valid ASCII character and the result that prints cannot be what you expected.It may display a distinctive character, control code, or undefined behavior, depending on the system and compiler.

Therefore, ensure that the integer value you supply when using %c corresponds to a valid ASCII character code within the range of 0 to 127 for consistent and expected outcomes in your C and C++ programs.

Example: 2

Let us take an example to illustrate the Character arithmetic operation in C++.

#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
char ch = 65;
cout << ch << endl;
cout << ch + 0 << endl;
cout << char(ch + 32) << endl;
return 0;
}

Output:

Example: 3

Let us take another example to illustrate the Character arithmetic operation using ASCII values in C++.

#include <bits/stdc++.h>
using namespace std;
int main(){
char value1 = 'a';
char value2 = 'b';
char value3 = 'z';
char num1 = value1 + 3;
char num2 = value2 - 1;
char num3 = value3 + 2;
cout<<"numerical value = "<<(int)num1<<endl;
cout<<"numerical value = "<<(int)num2<<endl;
cout<<"numerical value = "<<(int)num3<<endl;
return 0;
}

Output:

Example: 4

#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
char a = 'A';
char b = 'B';
printf("a = %c\n", a);
printf("b = %c\n", b);
printf("a + b = %c\n", a + b);
return 0;
}

Output:

Explanation:

In this example, the values "A" and "B" are allocated to the two character variables "a" and "b". Using character arithmetic, the program adds "a" and "b", producing the character "â". It occurs because characters are interpreted as integers according to their ASCII code values. For instance, the ASCII codes for "A" and "B", when added together (65 + 66), equal 131, which is equivalent to the ASCII character "â". The printf() function is used to print the result.

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