C# XOR on two byte variables will not compile without a cast [duplicate]

Answer 1

It seems to be because in C# language specifications, it is defined for integer and long http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa691307%28v=VS.71%29.aspx

So, what actually happens is that compiler casts byte operands to int implicitly because there is no loss of data that way. But the result (which is int) can not be down-cast-ed without loss of data (implicitly). So, you need to tell the compiler explicitly that you know what you are doing!