title: Casting int to char in java- must I use ASCII?
body: <p>Q: When casting an int to a char in Java, it seems that the default result is the ASCII character corresponding to that int value.  My question is, is there some way to specify a different character set to be used when casting?</p>
  
  <p>(Background info: I'm working on a project in which I read in a string of binary characters, convert it into chunks, and convert the chunks into their values in decimal, ints, which I then cast as chars.  I then need to be able to "expand" the resulting compressed characters back to binary by reversing the process.
  I have been able to do this, but currently I have only been able to compress up to 6 "bits" into a single character, because when I allow for larger amounts, there are some values in the range which do not seem to be handled well by ASCII; they become boxes or question marks and when they are cast back into an int, their original value has not been preserved.  If I could use another character set, I imagine I could avoid this problem and compress the binary by 8 bits at a time, which is my goal.)</p>
  
  <p>I hope this was clear, and thanks in advance!</p>