Character literal. A character literal is a value. It is usually assigned to a variable of type char. Character literals in the C# language are enclosed in single-quote characters.
In character literals, some values must be escaped with backslash characters. This can lead to compile-time errors if not done correctly. Care must be used.
First, we use character literals in the C# language. Char variables, such as those at the class level or the local variable level, are assigned to the character literal values.
Info The literals are immutable and cannot be changed, but the variables that store those values simply denote storage locations.
Here The const char in the program uses value semantics and cannot be reassigned. It is a named literal.
using System;
class Program
{
static char _literal5 = 'e'; // Static character literal.
const char _literal6 = '#'; // Constant character literal.
static void Main()
{
//// Shows some example character literals.// ... Also shows a local constant character literal.// ... Then prints them.//
char literal1 = 'A';
char literal2 = 'b';
char literal3 = '\\';
const char literal4 = '_';
Console.WriteLine(literal1);
Console.WriteLine(literal2);
Console.WriteLine(literal3);
Console.WriteLine(literal4);
Console.WriteLine(_literal5);
Console.WriteLine(_literal6);
}
}A
b
\
_
e
#
Compile-time errors. It is critical to understand how char literal escapes work. This program shows some possible errors in a C# program.
And For a newcomer to C# this program could be a challenge to debug (we need double backslashes in the literal).
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
char backslash = '\';
}
}Error CS1010
Newline in constant
Error CS1012
Too many characters in character literal
Error CS1002
; expected
A discussion. A variable (like char) denotes a storage location. This can be reassigned to different values. A character literal denotes a value, and this can never be changed in memory.
Further A const char can only be used as a value, not a variable. It is a way of referring to a character literal by a name.
A summary. Character literals represent character values. They are a form of value representation, not a variable type—they are constants.
Character literals cannot be changed during runtime, but the variables that store them can. We must escape some literals, like newlines and the backslash.
Dot Net Perls is a collection of pages with code examples, which are updated to stay current. Programming is an art, and it can be learned from examples.
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