Return type of bitwise operation in C

Question

I have an int (32) value Val packed in form

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| 32-XXXXXXXXX-16 | 15-short-int-val-0 |
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When extracting the short integer value from this Val if I do the operation

short temp = Val & 0x0000FFFF;

What is will be the return type of the operation Val & 0x0000FFFF ? Do I need to type cast the value to (short)(Val & 0x0000FFFFF) to have correct data stored in temp?

The doubt arises since I assume hex numbers are inherently treated as unsigned integers.

How is the above operation different from doing

short temp = Val & 0xFFFF;

Answer 1

Let's assume 32-bit int, 16-bit short and 8-bit char.

short temp = Val & 0x0000FFFF;

Val is of type int. 0x0000FFFF which is the same as 0xFFFF is of type int as well.

The expression Val & 0x0000FFFF is then also of type int and is implicitly converted to short at initialization of temp object.

So:

What is will be the return type of the operation Val & 0x0000FFFF ?

See above, int.

Do I need to type cast the value to (short)(Val & 0x0000FFFFF) to have correct data stored in temp?

See above, no as the expression is implicitly converted to short at initialization of temp object.

The doubt arises since I assume hex numbers are inherently treated as unsigned integers.

This is a wrong asssumption as here 0x0000FFFF is of signed type int.