writing console output in java

Question

class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String args[]) {
int b;
b = 'A';
System.out.write(b);
System.out.write('\n');
System.out.write(97);
System.out.write('\n');
System.out.write(1889); 
System.out.write('\n');
}
}

output of this program is

A
a
a

How does the following line produce a as the output.

System.out.write(1889);

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 28 '16 at 18:05

9

Because 1889 % 256 = 97. There are 256 ASCII characters, so the mod operator is used to get a valid character.

edited Jul 28 '16 at 18:05

SkyWalker

28,384
14
74
132

answered Jul 28 '16 at 17:59

Cricket

148
1
5

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

According to this answer System.out.write(int) writes the least significant byte to the output in a system-dependent way. In your case, the system decided to write it as a character.

1889 == 0000 0111 0110 0001
  97 == 0000 0000 0110 0001

The right-most octet is the same for both numbers. As @Cricket mentions, this is essentially the same as taking the modulus of the number you pass in and 256.

writing console output in java

2 Answers2