4.4.3: Literals and Constants - Characters

Character Literal

This refers to the literals that are used to store a single character within a single quote. To store multiple characters, one needs to use a character array. Storing more than one character within a single quote will throw a warning and displays just the last character of the literal. It gives rise to the following two representations:

• char type: This used to store normal character literal or the narrow-character literals. This is supported by both C and C++.

  Example:

  // For C++
  char chr = 'G';
  

• wchar_t type: This literal is supported only in C++ and not in C. If the character is followed by L, then the literal needs to be stored in wchar_t. This represents wide-character literal.

  Example:

  // For C++
  wchar_t chr = L'G';
  

Example:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
  
int main()
{   // constant char literal
    const char charVal = 'A';
  
    // wide char literal
    const wchar_t charVal1 = L'A';
  
    cout << "Character Literal: " << charVal << "\n";
    cout << "Wide_Character Literal: " << charVal1 << "\n";
  
    return 0;
} 

Output:

Character Literal: A

Escape Sequences: There are various special characters that one can use to perform various operations.

Adapted from:
"Types of Literals in C/C++ with Examples" by Chinmoy Lenka, Geeks for Geeks