title: What is the difference between Short and Character apart from processing?
body: <p>For what I know:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>"bytewise", it looks like they are the same (they are both 2 bytes long);</li>
  <li><code>Character</code>, however, has more processing to it (static <code>.isLetter()</code> method and others, etc).</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>While my questions may sound dumb, here they are:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>unless my first assumption is wrong, why are there primitive types <code>char</code> and <code>short</code> since they have the same "internal length` and, anyway, there are no unsigned primitive types in Java?</li>
  <li><code>Short</code> is <code>final</code>, if it weren't, could <code>Character</code> have extended <code>Short</code>?</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT</strong>: answer given and I was wrong: there <em>is</em> one unsigned primitive type in Java and that is... <code>char</code>.</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT 2</strong>: @PatriciaShanahan also mentions that in <em>arithmetic</em> operations, a <code>char</code> behaves like an unsigned 16bit integer, just like a <code>short</code>. And this includes left shifts, that is, the sign bit <em>is</em> carried along, just like for <code>short</code>.</p>