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Lecture 3 Constants and Literals

The document discusses different types of constants in C including integer, floating point, and character constants. It also discusses defining constants using the #define preprocessor and const keyword and provides examples. Operators in C are also covered including arithmetic, relational, logical and bitwise operators with examples.

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8 views

Lecture 3 Constants and Literals

The document discusses different types of constants in C including integer, floating point, and character constants. It also discusses defining constants using the #define preprocessor and const keyword and provides examples. Operators in C are also covered including arithmetic, relational, logical and bitwise operators with examples.

Uploaded by

suhridtalukder333
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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C Constants and Literals

The constants refer to fixed values that the program may not alter during its execution. These fixed values are
also called literals.
Constants can be of any of the basic data types like an integer constant, a floating constant, a character
constant, or a string literal. There are also enumeration constants as well.
The constants are treated just like regular variables except that their values cannot be modified after their
definition.

Integer literals
An integer literal can be a decimal, octal, or hexadecimal constant. A prefix specifies the base or radix: 0x or
0X for hexadecimal, 0 for octal, and nothing for decimal.
An integer literal can also have a suffix that is a combination of U and L, for unsigned and long, respectively.
The suffix can be uppercase or lowercase and can be in any order.
Here are some examples of integer literals:

Floating-point literals
A floating-point literal has an integer part, a decimal point, a fractional part, and an exponent part. You can
represent floating point literals either in decimal form or exponential form.
While representing using decimal form, you must include the decimal point, the exponent, or both and while
representing using exponential form, you must include the integer part, the fractional part, or both. The signed
exponent is introduced by e or E.

Here are some examples of floating-point literals:

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Character constants
Character literals are enclosed in single quotes, e.g., 'x' and can be stored in a simple variable of char type.
A character literal can be a plain character (e.g., 'x'), an escape sequence (e.g., '\t'), or a universal character
(e.g., '\u02C0').
There are certain characters in C when they are preceded by a backslash they will have special meaning and
they are used to represent like newline (\n) or tab (\t). Here, you have a list of some of such escape sequence
codes:

Following is the example to show few escape sequence characters:

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Defining Constants
There are two simple ways in C to define constants:
1. Using #define preprocessor.
2. Using const keyword.
The #define Preprocessor
Following is the form to use #define preprocessor to define a constant:

Following example explains it in detail:

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

The const Keyword

You can use const prefix to declare constants with a specific type as follows:

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Following example explains it in detail:

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result:

Note that it is a good programming practice to define constants in CAPITALS.

C Operators
An operator is a symbol that tells the compiler to perform specific mathematical or logical manipulations. C
language is rich in built-in operators and provides the following types of operators:

This tutorial will explain the arithmetic, relational, logical, bitwise, assignment and other operators one by
one.

Arithmetic Operators
Following table shows all the arithmetic operators supported by C language. Assume variable A holds 10 and
variable B holds 20, then:

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Try the following example to understand all the arithmetic operators available in C programming language:

When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result:

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Relational Operators
Following table shows all the relational operators supported by C language. Assume variable A holds 10 and
variable B holds 20, then:

Try the following example to understand all the relational operators available in C programming language:

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When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result:

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