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chexbitwise-operatorsoctal

Ambiguous Hex/octal value in bitwise operation in C

I feel I'm missing something basic about number system but I'm really confused with below piece of code I'm trying to play with bitwise operators:

x=56;
printf("\nHere  :\n%x   %x\n",x,077);
x=x& ~077;
printf("%x\n",x);

It considers 077 as octal(hex 3f). And if I put only 77 it treats it as decimal (hex 4d). If put 177 , its treated as decimal(hex b1). I'm referring the book C programming by Richie and Kernighan.

Please help.

Solution

  • All exactly as expected. Start with a 0 and it's octal. Start with 0x and it's hex. Otherwise, it is decimal.

    What is the problem?