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+.. highlight:: cpp
+
+.. _lang-char:
+
+``char``
+========
+
+The ``char`` type stores a 1-byte character value (or integer with
+value from -128 to 127). Character literals are written in single
+quotes, like this: ``'A'`` (for multiple characters - strings - use
+double quotes: ``"ABC"``).
+
+
+Just like everything else on a computer, characters are stored as
+numbers. You can see the specific encoding in the `ASCII chart
+<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII#ASCII_printable_characters>`_\
+. This means that it is possible to do arithmetic on characters, in
+which the ASCII value of the character is used (e.g. ``'A' + 1`` has the
+decimal value 66, since the ASCII value of the capital letter A in
+decimal is 65). See the :ref:`Serial.println()
+<lang-serial-println>` documentation for more information about how
+characters are converted into numbers.
+
+The ``char`` datatype is a signed type, meaning that it encodes
+numbers from -128 to 127. For an unsigned type, which stores values
+from 0 to 255, just use the type ``unsigned char`` (two words).
+
+
+Example
+-------
+
+::
+
+ // the following two lines are equivalent, using the ASCII
+ // character encoding:
+ char c = 'A';
+ char c = 65;
+
+
+See also
+--------
+
+
+- :ref:`lang-int`
+- :ref:`lang-array` (a string is just an array of ``char``\ s)
+- :ref:`Serial.println() <lang-serial-println>`
+
+
+
+.. include:: cc-attribution.txt