bearophile Wrote: > In my programs I use use unsigned integers and unsigned longs as: > - bitfields, a single size_t, for example to represent a small set of items. > - bitarrays, in an array of size_t, to represent a larger set, to have array > of bit flags, etc. > - to pack small variables into a uint, size_t, etc, for example use the first > 5 bits to represent a, the following 2 bits to represent b, etc. In such > situation I have never pack such variables into a signed int.
I think, signed ints can hold bits as gracefully as unsigned ones. > - when I need very large integer values, but this has to be done with care, > because they can't be converted back to ints. I don't think that large integers know or respect computers-specific integers limits. They just get larger and larger. > - Probably there are few other situations, for example I think I've used an > ushort once, but not many of them. legacy technologies tend to use unsigneds intensively and people got used to unsigned chars (for comparison and character maps).
