HP C/iX Reference Manual (31506-90011)

Chapter 2 23

Lexical Elements

Character Constants

A character constant is a constant that is enclosed in single quotes.

Syntax

character-constant:

'c-char-sequence'

c-char-sequence:

c-char

c-char-sequence c-char

c-char:

any character in the source character set except

the single-quote ', backslash \, or new-line character

escape-sequence

escape-sequence:

simple-escape-sequence

octal-escape-sequence

hexadecimal-escape-sequence

simple-escape-sequence:

one of

\' \" \? \\

\a \b \f \n \r \t \v

octal-escape-sequence:

octal-digit

octal-digit octal-digit

octal-digit octal-digit octal-digit

hexadecimal-escape-sequence:

hexadecimal-digit

hexadecimal-escape-sequence hexadecimal-digit

NOTE

\a and \? are available only in ANSI mode.

Description

There are two types of character constants — integral character constants and wide

character constants.

Integral character constants are of type int. They do not have type char. However,

because a char is normally converted to an int in an expression, this seldom is a problem.

The contents can be ASCII characters, octal escape sequences, or hexadecimal escape

sequences. Octal escape sequences consist of a backslash, ( \ ) followed by up to three octal

digits. Hexadecimal escape sequences also start with a backslash, which is followed by