Java Glossary : unsigned

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unsigned

in Java bytes, shorts, ints and longs are all considered signed. The only unsigned type is the 16-bit char. To use the sign bit as an additional data bit you have to promote to the next bigger data type with sign extension then mask off the high order bits. i.e. To get the effect of an 8-bit unsigned:

byte b;
// ...
int i = b & 0xff;

To get the effect of effect of a 16-bit unsigned use char.

To get the effect of a 32-bit unsigned:

int i;
// ...
long l = i & 0xffffffffL;

If you have an extensive amount of unsigned work do to, especially 64-bit unsigned, you might find the WBEM classes useful.

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