C Tokens

A token is the smallest element of a program that is meaningful to the compiler. Tokens can be
classified as follows:
1. Keywords
2. Identifiers
3. Constants
4. Strings
5. Special Symbols
6. Operators
1. Keyword: Keywords are pre-defined or reserved words in a programming language. Each
keyword is meant to perform a specific function in a program. Since keywords are referred names
for a compiler, they can’t be used as variable names. C language supports 32 keywords which are
given below:
auto double int struct
break else long switch
case enum register typedef
char extern return union
const float short unsigned
continue for signed void
default goto sizeof volatile
do if static while

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 ➢ Identifiers: Identifiers are used as the general terminology for naming of variables,
functions and arrays. These are user defined names consisting of arbitrarily long sequence
of letters and digits with either a letter or the underscore(_) as a first character. Identifier
names must differ in spelling and case from any keywords. You cannot use keywords as
identifiers; they are reserved for special use. Once declared, you can use the identifier in
later program statements to refer to the associated value. A special kind of identifier,
called a statement label, can be used in goto statements.
There are certain rules that should be followed while naming c identifiers:
➢ They must begin with a letter or underscore(_).
➢ They must consist of only letters, digits, or underscore. No other special character is
allowed.
➢ It should not be a keyword.
➢ It must not contain white space.
➢ It should be up to 31 characters long as only first 31 characters are significant.
3. Constants: Constants are also like normal variables. But, only difference is, their values can not
be modified by the program once they are defined. Constants refer to fixed values. They are also
called as literals. Constants may belong to
any of the data type.
Syntax:
const data_type variable_name; (or) const data_type *variable_name;
Types of Constants:
1. Integer constants – Example: 0, 1, 1218, 12482
2. Real or Floating point constants – Example: 0.0, 1203.03, 30486.184
3. Octal & Hexadecimal constants – Example: octal: (013 )8 = (11)10, Hexadecimal: (013)16
= (19)10
4. Character constants -Example: ‘a’, ‘A’, ‘z’
5. String constants -Example: “GeeksforGeeks”

4. Strings: Strings are nothing but an array of characters ended with a null character (‘\0’).This
null character indicates the end of the string. Strings are always enclosed in double quotes.
Whereas, a character is enclosed in single quotes in C and C++.
Declarations for String:
• char string[20] = {‘g’, ’e’, ‘e’, ‘k’, ‘s’, ‘f’, ‘o’, ‘r’, ‘g’, ’e’, ‘e’, ‘k’, ‘s’, ‘\0’};
• char string[20] = “geeksforgeeks”;
• char string [] = “geeksforgeeks”;

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5. Special Symbols: The following special symbols are used in C having some special
meaning and thus, cannot be used for some other purpose.[] () {}, ; * = #
• Brackets[]: Opening and closing brackets are used as array element reference. These
indicate single and multidimensional subscripts.
• Parentheses(): These special symbols are used to indicate function calls and function
parameters.
• Braces{}: These opening and ending curly braces marks the start and end of a block of
code containing more than one executable statement.
• comma (, ): It is used to separate more than one statements like for separating parameters
in function calls.
• semi colon : It is an operator that essentially invokes something called an initialization
list.
• asterick (*): It is used to create pointer variable.
• assignment operator: It is used to assign values.
• Pre-processor(#): The preprocessor is a macro processor that is used automatically by the
compiler to transform your program before actual compilation.
6. Operators: Operators are symbols that triggers an action when applied to C variables and
other objects. The data items on which operators act upon are called operands. Depending
on the number of operands that an operator can act upon, operators can be classified as follows:
1. Arithmetic Operator
2. Relational Operators
3. Logical Operators
4. Bit-wise Operators
5. Unary Operators
6. Ternary Operator conditional operators
7. Assignment Operators
8. Special Operator

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