Tokens : each individual unit in programming language is called tokens.
Tokens:-
1: Identifiers
2:Keywords
3: Constants
4: Strings
5: Special Symbols
6: Operators
Identifiers refer to the names of variables, constants, functions and arrays. These are user-defined names is
called Identifiers. These identifier are defined against a set of rules.
Rules for an Identifier
1. An Identifier can only have alphanumeric characters( a-z , A-Z , 0-9 ) and underscore( _
).
2. The first character of an identifier can only contain alphabet( a-z , A-Z ) or underscore ( _
).
3. Identifiers are also case sensitive in C. For example name and Name are two different
identifier in C.
4. Keywords are not allowed to be used as Identifiers.
5. No special characters, such as semicolon, period, whitespaces, slash or comma are
permitted to be used in or as Identifier.
6. C‟ compiler recognizes only the first 31 characters of an identifiers.
Ex : Valid Invalid
STDNAME Return
SUB $stay
TOT_MARKS 1RECORD
_TEMP STD NAME.
Y2K
Keywords: A keyword is a reserved word. All keywords have fixed meaning that means we cannot
change. Keywords serve as basic building blocks for program statements. All keywords must be written in
lowercase. A list of 32 keywords in c language is given below:
auto break case char
const continue default do
double enum else extern
float for goto if
int long return register
signed short static sizeof
struct switch typedef union
unsigned void volatile while
Note: Keywords we cannot use it as a variable name, constant name etc.
Data Types/Types:
• To store data the program must reserve space which is done using datatype. A datatype is a
keyword/predefined instruction used for allocating memory for data. A data type specifies the
type of data that a variable can store such as integer, floating, character etc. It used for
declaring/defining variables or functions of different types before to use in a program.
There are 4 types of data types in C language.
Types Data Types
Basic Data Type int, char, float, double
Derived Data Type array, pointer, structure, union
Enumeration Data Type enum
Void Data Type void
Note: We call Basic or Primary data type.
The basic data types are integer-based and floating-point based. C language supports both signed and unsigned
literals. The memory size of basic data types may change according to 32 or 64 bit operating system. Let‟s
see the basic data types. Its size is given according to 32 bit architecture.
Size and Ranges of Data Types with Type Qualifiers
Type Size (bytes) Range Control String
char or signed char 1 -128 to 127 %c
unsigned char 1 0 to 255 %c
int or signed int 2 -32768 to 32767 %d or %i
unsigned int 2 0 to 65535 %u
short int or signed short 1 -128 to 127 %d or %i
int
unsigned short int 1 0 to 255 %d or %i
long int or signed long int 4 -2147483648 to 2147483647 %ld
unsigned long int 4 0 to 4294967295 %lu
float 4 3.4E-38 to 3.4E+38 %f or %g
double 8 1.7E-308 to 1.7E+308 %lf
long double 10 3.4E-4932 to 1.1E+4932 %Lf
Variables
A variable is a name of memory location. It is used to store data. Variables are changeable, we can change
value of a variable during execution of a program. . It can be reused many times.
Note: Variable are nothing but identifiers.
Rules to write variable names:
1. A variable name contains maximum of 30 characters/ Variable
name must be upto 8 characters.
2. A variable name includes alphabets and numbers, but it must start
with an alphabet.
3. It cannot accept any special characters, blank spaces except under
score( _ ).
4. It should not be a reserved word.
Ex : i rank1 MAX min Student_name
StudentName class_mark
Declaration of Variables : A variable can be used to store a value of any data type. The declaration of
variables must be done before they are used in the program. The general format for declaring a variable.
Syntax : data_type variable-1,variable-2, ------------------- , variable-n;
Variables are separated by commas and declaration statement ends with a semicolon.
Ex : int x,y,z;
float a,b; char m,n;
Assigning values to variables : values can be assigned to variables using the assignment operator
(=). The general format statement is :
Syntax : variable = constant; Ex : x=100;
a= 12.25;
m=‟f‟;
we can also assign a value to a variable at the time of the variable is declared. The general format of
declaring and assigning value to a variable is :
Syntax : data_type variable =
constant; Ex ; int x=100;
float a=12.25; char m=‟f‟;
Types of Variables in C
There are many types of variables in c:
1. local variable
2. global variable
3. static variable
Constants
Constants refer to fixed values that do not change during the execution of a program.
Note: constants are also called literals.
C supports several kinds of constants.
CONSTANTS
Numeric Constants Character Constants
Integer Constants Real Constants Single Character Constants String Constants
TYPES OF C CONSTANT:
1. Integer constants
2. Real or Floating point constants
3. Character constants
4. String constants
5. Backslash character constants
Integer constants:
An integer constant is a numeric constant (associated with number) without any fractional or
exponential part. There are three types of integer constants in C programming:
• decimal constant(base 10)
• octal constant(base 8)
• hexadecimal constant(base 16)
For example:
• Decimal constants: 0, -9, 22 etc
• Octal constants: 021, 077, 033 etc
• Hexadecimal constants: 0x7f, 0x2a, 0x521 etc
• In C programming, octal constant starts with a 0 and hexadecimal constant starts with a
0x.
1: Decimal Integer : the rules for represent decimal integer.
a) Decimal Integer value which consist of digits from 0-9.
b) Decimal Integer value with base 10.
c) Decimal Integer should not prefix with 0.
d) It allows only sign (+,-).
e) No special character allowed in this integer.
Ex : valid invalid
7 $77
77 077
+77 7,777
- 77
2 : Octal : An integer constants with base 8 is called octal. These rules are :
a) it consist of digits from 0 to 7.
b) It should prefix with 0.
c) It allows sign (+,-).
d) No special character is allowed.
EX : VALID INVALID
0123 123 -> it because no prefix with 0
+0123 0128 -> because digits from 0 to 7.
-0123
3 : Hexadecimal : An integer constant with base value 16 is called Hexadecimal.
a) It consist of digits from 0-9,a-f(capital letters & small leters.
Ex : 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
b) it should prefix with 0X or 0x.
c) it allows sign (+,-).
d) No special character is allowed.
EX : OX1a, ox2f
Floating point/Real constants:
A floating point constant is a numeric constant that has either a fractional form or an exponent form. For
example:
-2.0
0.0000234
-0.22E-5
Note: E-5 = 10-5
Real Constants : Real constant is base 10 number, which is represented in decimal 0r scientific/exponential
notation.
Real Notation : The real notation is represented by an integer followed by a decimal point and the
fractional(decimal) part. It is possible to omit digits before or after the decimal point.
Ex : 15.25
.75
30
-9.52
-92
+.94
Scientific/Exponential Notation: The general form of Scientific/Exponential notation is mantisha e
exponent
The mantisha is either a real/floating point number expressed in decimal notation or an integer and the
exponent is an integer number with an optional sign. The character e separating the mantisha and the exponent
can be written in either lowercase or uppercase.
Ex : 1.5E-2
100e+3
-2.05e2
Character Constant:
Single Character Constant : A character constant is either a single alphabet, a single digit, a single special
symbol enclosed within single inverted commas.
a) it is value represent in „ „ (single quote).
b) The maximam length of a character constant can be 1 character.
EX : VALID INVALID
„a‟ “12”
„A‟ „ab‟
String constant : A string constant is a sequence of characters enclosed in
double quote, the characters may be letters, numbers, special characters and
blank space etc
EX : “rama” , “a” , “+123” , “1-/a”
"good" //string constant
"" //null string constant
" " //string constant of six white space
"x" //string
constant having single character. "Earth
is round\n"
//prints
string with newline Escape characters
or backslash characters:
a) \n newline
b) \r carriage return
c) \t tab
d) \v vertical tab
e) \b backspace
f) \f form feed (page feed)
g) \a alert (beep)
h) \‟ single quote(„)
i) \” double quote(“)
j) \? Question mark (?)
k) \\ backslash (\)