在嵌入式系统上编程时，必须使用无符号整数。在循环中，当不需要有符号整数时，使用无符号整数将节省设计此类系统所需的安全。

在C语言中，有符号值和无符号值之间唯一保证的区别是有符号值可以为负、0或正，而无符号值只能为0或正。问题是C语言没有定义类型的格式(所以你不知道你的整数是2的补数)。严格来说，你提到的前两点是不正确的。

Signed integers in C represent numbers. If a and b are variables of signed integer types, the standard will never require that a compiler make the expression a+=b store into a anything other than the arithmetic sum of their respective values. To be sure, if the arithmetic sum would not fit into a, the processor might not be able to put it there, but the standard would not require the compiler to truncate or wrap the value, or do anything else for that matter if values that exceed the limits for their types. Note that while the standard does not require it, C implementations are allowed to trap arithmetic overflows with signed values.

Unsigned integers in C behave as abstract algebraic rings of integers which are congruent modulo some power of two, except in scenarios involving conversions to, or operations with, larger types. Converting an integer of any size to a 32-bit unsigned type will yield the member corresponding to things which are congruent to that integer mod 4,294,967,296. The reason subtracting 3 from 2 yields 4,294,967,295 is that adding something congruent to 3 to something congruent to 4,294,967,295 will yield something congruent to 2.

Abstract algebraic rings types are often handy things to have; unfortunately, C uses signedness as the deciding factor for whether a type should behave as a ring. Worse, unsigned values are treated as numbers rather than ring members when converted to larger types, and unsigned values smaller than int get converted to numbers when any arithmetic is performed upon them. If v is a uint32_t which equals 4,294,967,294, then v*=v; should make v=4. Unfortunately, if int is 64 bits, then there's no telling what v*=v; could do.

鉴于标准的现状，我建议在需要与代数环相关的行为时使用无符号类型，在需要表示数字时使用有符号类型。不幸的是，C以这种方式进行了区分，但它们就是它们。

除了第二点，其他都是正确的。有符号整型有许多不同的表示法，有些实现使用第一种，有些使用最后一种，还有一些使用完全不同的表示法。这取决于你所使用的平台。

根据我们在课堂上学到的，有符号整数既可以表示正数也可以表示负数，而无符号整数只能表示非负数。

例如，看一个8位的数字:

无符号值为0到255

带符号的取值范围为-128 ~ 127

为了完整起见，这里只提几点:

this answer is discussing only integer representations. There may be other answers for floating point; the representation of a negative number can vary. The most common (by far - it's nearly universal today) in use today is two's complement. Other representations include one's complement (quite rare) and signed magnitude (vanishingly rare - probably only used on museum pieces) which is simply using the high bit as a sign indicator with the remain bits representing the absolute value of the number. When using two's complement, the variable can represent a larger range (by one) of negative numbers than positive numbers. This is because zero is included in the 'positive' numbers (since the sign bit is not set for zero), but not the negative numbers. This means that the absolute value of the smallest negative number cannot be represented. when using one's complement or signed magnitude you can have zero represented as either a positive or negative number (which is one of a couple of reasons these representations aren't typically used).