c-string-literals.md

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Learn more about: C String Literals	C String Literals	08/31/2018	string literals, syntax strings [C++], string literals literal strings, C	4b05523e-49a2-4900-b21a-754350af3328

C String Literals

A "string literal" is a sequence of characters from the source character set enclosed in double quotation marks (" "). String literals are used to represent a sequence of characters which, taken together, form a null-terminated string. You must always prefix wide-string literals with the letter L.

Syntax

string-literal:
    " s-char-sequence_opt "
    L" s-char-sequence_opt "

s-char-sequence:
    s-char

    s-char-sequence s-char

s-char:
    any member of the source character set except the double quotation mark ("), backslash (\), or newline character

    escape-sequence

Remarks

The example below is a simple string literal:

char *amessage = "This is a string literal.";

All escape codes listed in the Escape Sequences table are valid in string literals. To represent a double quotation mark in a string literal, use the escape sequence \". The single quotation mark (') can be represented without an escape sequence. The backslash (\) must be followed with a second backslash (\\) when it appears within a string. When a backslash appears at the end of a line, it is always interpreted as a line-continuation character.

See also

Elements of C