Question

Explain the distinction between the 8-bit binary integer 00000000 and the binary representation of the character 0 (zero).

Answer 1

0-0=0

Answer 2

You mean (char) '0' vs 0x0000 ? The '0' is simply an interpretation of of the hex number 0x0030. The numeric value of 0 (all bits unset) is as you would expect it. Now, the clever fact that '1' -'0' = '1' is simply because your compiler interpreted these to number to do the math and because '1' comes after '0' on the ASCII chart, this just works out. But if you did '0' - '1' = '/' but if you did 0 -1 you get 0xffffffff on a 32bit signed integer.

It's a matter of display on totally different binary numbers