Re: [avr-gcc-list] Re: Why is gcc promoting on an unsigned char?

[David Gay]

J.C. Wren wrote:
> 	I rewrote the ?: slightly differently, so it's treated more like if/else.  It 
> produces the same code as the if() version.  The second version (or more 
> correctly, original version) of ?: is not optimizing correctly, based on my 
> interpetation of the grammar.  Considering that every thing is cast, I am 
> unclear as to why it thinks it needs to promote to ints for the intermediate 
> results.

Because the C standard says it must. To quote from section 6.5.15, conditional 
operator:
       If  both the second and third operands have arithmetic
       type, the type that the usual arithmetic  conversions  would
       yield  if  applied  to those two operands is the type of the
       result.  If both the operands have structure or union  type,
       the  result has that type.  If both operands have void type,
       the result has void type.

Where the usual arithmetic conversions include the rule that anything smaller 
than int is promoted to int.

David Gay
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