Primitive character
You will use primitive character most of the time for a single character value.
char ch = 'a';
// character supports Unicode encoding
// you can represent Unicode characters using their hex values
char unicodeChar = '\u0041'; // Unicode value for capital letter 'A'Arithmetic operation on character
In java, char is an unsigned 16-bit integer that represents a ASCII character. More about character literal on Character literal.
char character = 97;
System.out.println(character);a
The Unicode numerical value for lower case letter ‘a’ is 97.
When you perform arithmetic operations on characters, you are actually performing arithmetic on their ASCII value.
// 'a' has a Unicode value of 97, whereas 'b' is 98
char result = 'b' - 'a';
// this code is equivalent to 98 - 97
System.out.println(result);1
In the below code, ch has a value of ‘a’, which has an equivalent ASCII value of 97, when we increment the value, it represents a different character.
char ch = 'a';
ch++;
System.out.println(ch);b
Character wrapper class
Back to parent page: Java Standard Edition (Java SE) and Java Programming
Web_and_App_DevelopmentProgramming_LanguagesJavaCharacter
Reference: