Why in line 22 it has to be System.out.print((char)a) instead of System.out.print(a)?

Why in line 22 it has to be System.out.print((char)a) instead of System.out.print(a)?

it is because the filereader.read method only returns an int, which you capture on line 21, that corresponds to the ASCII table value of the character being read. When you output just 'a' the computer does not know 'a' is anything but an int. You need to cast to a char with the code you mentioned so that the computer outputs the character and not the ASCII number for the character. http://www.asciitable.com/

Try this code out:

public class Solution {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
        for (int i = 48; i < 126; i++) {
            System.out.println("Value of i: " + i + ", the ASCII character of i: " + (char) i);
        }
    }
}

If you look at the ASCII table and run that code you can compare values from that to what is output.

thanks Guadalupe! :)

anytime