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 playerScore = 95;
Here, playerScore is a variable of int
type. Here, the variable is assigned an integer value 95
.
The value of a variable can be changed, hence the name variable.
char ch = 'a';
// some code
ch = 'l';
Rules for naming a variable
- A variable name can only have letters (both uppercase and lowercase letters), digits and underscore.
- The first letter of a variable should be either a letter or an underscore.
- There is no rule on how long a variable name (identifier) can be. However, you may run into problems in some compilers if the variable name is longer than 31 characters.
Note: You should always try to give meaningful names to variables. For example: firstName
is a better variable name than fn
.
C is a strongly typed language. This means that the variable type cannot be changed once it is declared. For example:
int number = 5; // integer variable
number = 5.5; // error
double number; // error
Here, the type of number variable is int
. You cannot assign a floating-point (decimal) value 5.5 to this variable. Also, you cannot redefine the data type of the variable to double
. By the way, to store the decimal values in C, you need to declare its type to either double
or float
.
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:
- 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. Escape Sequences
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.
5. 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
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
You can also define a constant using the #define
preprocessor directive.
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