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<table id="toc" class="toc"><tr><td><div id="toctitle"><h2>Contents</h2></div>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="character_constant.html#Syntax"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Syntax</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="character_constant.html#Notes"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Notes</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="character_constant.html#References"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="character_constant.html#See_also"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">See also</span></a></li>
</ul>
</td></tr></table>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="http://en.cppreference.com/mwiki/index.php?title=c/language/character_constant&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Syntax">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="Syntax">Syntax</span></h3>
<table class="t-sdsc-begin">
<tr>
<td colspan="10" class="t-sdsc-sep">
</td></tr>
<tr class="t-sdsc">
<td> <code><b>'</b></code> <span class="t-spar">c-char</span> <code><b>'</b></code>
</td>
<td> (1)
</td>
<td class="t-sdsc-nopad">
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="10" class="t-sdsc-sep">
</td></tr>
<tr class="t-sdsc">
<td> <code><b>u</b></code> <code><b>'</b></code> <span class="t-spar">c-char</span> <code><b>'</b></code> <span class="t-mark-rev t-since-c11">(since C11)</span>
</td>
<td> (2)
</td>
<td class="t-sdsc-nopad">
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="10" class="t-sdsc-sep">
</td></tr>
<tr class="t-sdsc">
<td> <code><b>U</b></code> <code><b>'</b></code> <span class="t-spar">c-char</span> <code><b>'</b></code> <span class="t-mark-rev t-since-c11">(since C11)</span>
</td>
<td> (3)
</td>
<td class="t-sdsc-nopad">
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="10" class="t-sdsc-sep">
</td></tr>
<tr class="t-sdsc">
<td> <code><b>L</b></code> <code><b>'</b></code> <span class="t-spar">c-char</span> <code><b>'</b></code>
</td>
<td> (4)
</td>
<td class="t-sdsc-nopad">
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="10" class="t-sdsc-sep">
</td></tr>
<tr class="t-sdsc">
<td> <code><b>'</b></code> <span class="t-spar">c-char-sequence</span> <code><b>'</b></code>
</td>
<td> (5)
</td>
<td class="t-sdsc-nopad">
</td></tr>
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<td colspan="10" class="t-sdsc-sep">
</td></tr></table>
<p>where
</p>
<ul><li> <span class="t-spar">c-char</span> is either
</li></ul>
<dl><dd><ul><li> a character from the basic source character set minus single-quote (<code><b>'</b></code>), backslash (<code><b>\</b></code>), or the newline character.
</li><li> escape sequence: one of special character escapes <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\<span class="st0">'</span></span></span> <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\<span class="st0">"</span></span></span> <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\<span class="sy4">?</span></span></span> <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\\</span></span> <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\a</span></span> <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\b</span></span> <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\f</span></span> <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\n</span></span> <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\r</span></span> <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\t</span></span> <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\v</span></span>, hex escapes <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\x...</span></span> or octal escapes <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\...</span></span> as defined in <a href="escape.html" title="c/language/escape">escape sequences</a>.
</li><li> <table class="t-rev-begin">
</li></ul>
</dd></dl>
<tr class="t-rev t-since-c99"><td>
<p>universal character name, <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\u...</span></span> or <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">\U...</span></span> as defined in <a href="escape.html" title="c/language/escape">escape sequences</a>.
</p>
</td>
<td><span class="t-mark-rev t-since-c99">(since C99)</span></td></tr>
</table>
<ul><li> <span class="t-spar">c-char-sequence</span> is a sequence of two or more <span class="t-spar">c-char</span>s.
</li></ul>
<div class="t-li1"><span class="t-li">1)</span> single-byte integer character constant, e.g. <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="st0">'a'</span></span></span> or <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="st0">'<span class="es1">\n</span>'</span></span></span> or <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="st0">'<span class="es5">\13</span>'</span></span></span>. Such constant has type <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="kw4">int</span></span></span> and a value equal to the representation of <span class="t-spar">c-char</span> in the execution character set as a value of type <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="kw4">char</span></span></span> mapped to <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="kw4">int</span></span></span>. If <span class="t-spar">c-char</span> is not representable as a single byte in the execution character set, the value is implementation-defined.</div>
<div class="t-li1"><span class="t-li">2)</span> 16-bit wide character constant, e.g. <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">u<span class="st0">'貓'</span></span></span>, but not <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">u<span class="st0">'🍌'</span></span></span> (<span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">u<span class="st0">'<span class="es4">\U0001f34c</span>'</span></span></span>). Such constant has type <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">char16_t</span></span> and a value equal to the value of <span class="t-spar">c-char</span> in the 16-bit encoding produced by <span class="t-lc"><a href="../string/multibyte/mbrtoc16.html" title="c/string/multibyte/mbrtoc16">mbrtoc16</a></span> (normally UTF-16). If <span class="t-spar">c-char</span> is not representable or maps to more than one 16-bit character, the behavior is implementation-defined.</div>
<div class="t-li1"><span class="t-li">3)</span> 32-bit wide character constant, e.g. <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">U<span class="st0">'貓'</span></span></span> or <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">U<span class="st0">'🍌'</span></span></span>. Such constant has type <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">char32_t</span></span> and a value equal to the value of <span class="t-spar">c-char</span> in in the 32-bit encoding produced by <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><a href="../string/multibyte/mbrtoc32.html"><span class="kw590">mbrtoc32</span></a></span></span> (normally UTF-32). If <span class="t-spar">c-char</span> is not representable or maps to more than one 32-bit character, the behavior is implementation-defined.</div>
<div class="t-li1"><span class="t-li">4)</span> wide character constant, e.g. <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">L<span class="st0">'β'</span></span></span> or <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c">L<span class="st0">'貓</span></span></span>. Such constant has type <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="kw4">wchar_t</span></span></span> and a value equal to the value of <span class="t-spar">c-char</span> in the execution wide character set (that is, the value that would be produced by <span class="t-lc"><a href="../string/multibyte/mbtowc.html" title="c/string/multibyte/mbtowc">mbtowc</a></span>). If <span class="t-spar">c-char</span> is not representable or maps to more than one wide character (e.g. a non-BMP value on Windows where wchar_t is 16-bit), the behavior is implementation-defined .</div>
<div class="t-li1"><span class="t-li">5)</span> multicharacter constant, e.g. <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="st0">'AB'</span></span></span>, has type <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="kw4">int</span></span></span> and implementation-defined value.</div>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="http://en.cppreference.com/mwiki/index.php?title=c/language/character_constant&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Notes">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="Notes">Notes</span></h3>
<p>Many implementations of multicharacter constants use the values of each char in the constant to initialize successive bytes of the resulting integer, in big-endian order, e.g. the value of <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="st0">'<span class="es5">\1</span><span class="es5">\2</span><span class="es5">\3</span><span class="es5">\4</span>'</span></span></span> is <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="nu12">0x1020304</span></span></span>.
</p><p>In C++, ordinary character constants have type <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="kw4">char</span></span></span>, rather than <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="kw4">int</span></span></span>.
</p><p>Unlike <a href="integer_constant.html" title="c/language/integer constant">integer constants</a>, a character constant may have a negative value if <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="kw4">char</span></span></span> is signed: on such implementations <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="st0">'<span class="es2">\xFF</span>'</span></span></span> is an <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="kw4">int</span></span></span> with the value <span class="t-c"><span class="mw-geshi c source-c"><span class="sy2">-</span><span class="nu0">1</span></span></span>.
</p><p>When used in a controlling expression of <a href="../preprocessor/conditional.html" title="c/preprocessor/conditional">#if</a> or <a href="../preprocessor/conditional.html" title="c/preprocessor/conditional">#elif</a>, character constants may be interpreted in terms of the source character set, the execution character set, or some other implementation-defined character set.
</p>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="http://en.cppreference.com/mwiki/index.php?title=c/language/character_constant&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: References">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span></h3>
<div class="t-ref-std-11">
<ul><li> C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):
</li></ul>
<dl><dd><ul><li> 6.4.4.4 Character constants (p: 67-70)
</li></ul>
</dd></dl>
<div class="t-ref-std-c99">
<ul><li> C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):
</li></ul>
<dl><dd><ul><li> 6.4.4.4 Character constants (p: 59-61)
</li></ul>
</dd></dl>
<div class="t-ref-std-c89">
<ul><li> C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):
</li></ul>
<dl><dd><ul><li> 3.1.3.4 Character constants
</li></ul>
</dd></dl>
</div>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="http://en.cppreference.com/mwiki/index.php?title=c/language/character_constant&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: See also">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="See_also">See also</span></h3>
<table class="t-dsc-begin">
<tr class="t-dsc">
<td colspan="2"> <div class="t-dsc-see"><span><a href="../../cpp/language/character_literal.html" title="cpp/language/character literal">C++ documentation</a></span> for <span class="t-dsc-see-tt"><span>character literal</span></span></div>
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