Keywords and Identifier in C ~ mkniit

Keywords

Keywords are preserved words that have special meaning in C language. The meaning has already been described. These meaning cannot be changed. There are total 32 keywords in C language.

auto	double	int	struct
break	else	long	switch
case	enum	register	typedef
const	extern	return	union
char	float	short	unsigned
continue	for	signed	volatile
default	goto	sizeof	void
do	if	static	while

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Identifiers

In C language identifiers are the names given to variables, constants, functions and user-define data. These identifier are defined against a set of rules.

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Rules for an Identifier

1. An Indetifier 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.

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Character set

In C language characters are grouped into the following catagories,

1. Letters(all alphabets a to z & A to Z).
2. Digits (all digits 0 to 9).
3. Special characters, ( such as colon :, semicolon ;, period ., underscore _, ampersand & etc).
4. White spaces.