Enclose a character constant in single quotes. However, if the character constant includes a single quote, use double quotes to enclose the character constant.
The maximum width of a character constant is 4 characters, depending on the context. Examples are 'A', 'ABC', and 'TEXT'.
A character constant can contain any of the escape sequences that Character Constant Escape Sequences lists.
| Sequence | Description |
|---|---|
| \b | Backspace |
| \n | Line feed (ASCII character 10) |
| \r | Return (ASCII character 13) |
| \t | Tab |
| \" | Double quote |
| \\ | Backslash |
| \nnn | Octal value of \nnn |
During computation, the assembler zero-extends a character constant to 32 bits. You can use a character constant anywhere you can use an integer constant.