PROPOSAL: Unsigned Integer Widening Operator (original) (raw)

Stephen Colebourne scolebourne at joda.org
Wed Mar 25 16:19:42 PDT 2009

Bruce Chapman wrote:

Unsigned Integer Widening Operator

for(int i = idx; i < idx + length; i++) { value = (value << 8) | (+)buffer[i]; }

While I think this is neat, I see how an API handles the case reasonably well too.

This syntax also removes one option for operator overloading in Java:

DateTime dt = ... dt = dt (+) days(3); // which is actually dt.plus(days(3)); }

if (a (==) b) { // which is actually a null-safe .equals() comparison }

(not that I am pushing for either of these right now, but this syntax does block this potential alternate usage for (+).

Stephen