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20 views3 pages

Your First C Progra3

Uploaded by

fardincomputer99
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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C Variables, Constants and Literals

In the previous tutorial you learnt about C comments. Now, let's learn about variables, constants and
literals in C.

Variables
In programming, a variable is a container (storage area) to hold data.

To indicate the storage area, each variable should be given a unique name (identifier). Variable
names are just the symbolic representation of a memory location. For example:

int age = 25;

Here, age is a variable of int type and we have assigned an integer value 25 to it.

The value of a variable can be changed, hence the name variable.

char ch = 'a';

// some code

ch = 'l';

Constants
If you want to define a variable whose value cannot be changed, you can use the const keyword. This
will create a constant. For example,

const double PI = 3.14;

Notice, we have added keyword const.

Here, PI is a symbolic constant; its value cannot be changed.

const double PI = 3.14;

PI = 2.9; //Error

Literals
Literals are data used for representing fixed values. They can be used directly in the code. For
example: 1, 2.5, 'c' etc.

Here, 1, 2.5 and 'c' are literals. Why? You cannot assign different values to these terms.

1. Integers
An integer is a numeric literal(associated with numbers) without any fractional or exponential part.
There are three types of integer literals in C programming:
C Variables, Constants and Literals
 decimal (base 10)

 octal (base 8)

 hexadecimal (base 16)

For example:
Decimal: 0, -9, 22 etc

Octal: 021, 077, 033 etc

Hexadecimal: 0x7f, 0x2a, 0x521 etc

In C programming, octal starts with a 0, and hexadecimal starts with a 0x.

2. Floating-point Literals
A floating-point literal is a numeric literal that has either a fractional form or an exponent form. For
example:

-2.0

0.0000234

-0.22E-5

Note: E-5 = 10-5

3. Characters
A character literal is created by enclosing a single character inside single quotation marks. For
example: 'a', 'm', 'F', '2', '}' etc.

4. String Literals
A string literal is a sequence of characters enclosed in double-quote marks. For example:

"good" //string constant

"" //null string constant

" " //string constant of six white space

"x" //string constant having a single character.

"Earth is round\n" //prints string with a newline

5. Escape Sequences
C Variables, Constants and Literals
Sometimes, it is necessary to use characters that cannot be typed or has special meaning in C
programming. For example: newline(enter), tab, question mark etc.

In order to use these characters, escape sequences are used.

Escape Sequences Character

\b Backspace

\f Form feed

\n Newline

\r Return

\t Horizontal tab

\v Vertical tab

\\ Backslash

\' Single quotation mark

\" Double quotation mark

\? Question mark

\0 Null character

For example: \n is used for a newline. The backslash \ causes escape from the normal way the
characters are handled by the compiler.

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