What is Token in C?
The basic and smallest unit of a C program is called C tokens. This tokens are meaningful to the compiler. Compiler breaks the programs into smallest unit that is the tokens and proceed various compilation stages.
There are total six tokens in C Programming language.
Keywords and Identifiers:
Keywords are defined as the predefined, reserved word that has a fixed meaning and those meanings cannot be changed. There are a total of 32 keywords in ‘C’.
The table below represent 32 Keyword in the C Programming language:
| auto | double | int | struct |
|---|---|---|---|
| break | else | long | switch |
| case | enum | register | typedef |
| char | extern | return | union |
| const | float | short | unsigned |
| continue | for | signed | void |
| default | goto | sizeof | volatile |
| do | if | static | while |
Identifiers are nothing but the name assigned to the entities in the Program such as assigned to variables, functions in a program, Union, etc. Identifiers are user-defined in C Programming. These identifiers are case-sensitive, the first character must start with an alphabet or underscore, and no white spaces are allowed.
Operators:
Operators are the mathematical symbols that are used to perform a mathematical operation on operands. These symbols tell the compiler to perform respective operations. An expression is formed by joining constants and variables in C programming.
Example: + symbol used to perform addition between two or more than two operands. Other symbols are: -, *, /, etc.
Strings:
C programming defined string as a sequence or array of characters that are terminated by character ‘\0‘.
Example: str[]= “Strings Example”. These are enclosed within ” “.
Constants:
From the name constant, we can say that these are fix values that are used in a program and its values remain the same during the entire execution of the program. Also, we cannot change the value in the middle of the program.
These constants may be any of the data-types present in C such as integer, float, boolean, etc.
Special Characters in C:
There are few special characters or special symbol in C programming language that has some special meaning and purposes.
They are: [] () {}, ; * = #.
Example: [] (opening and closing brackets) is used for array elements reference.