What are the special symbols in C language?

In C programming language, generally, the special symbols have some special meaning. This language provides low-level access to the memory and it is identified for its performance and efficiency.

The C language includes a character set of English alphabets(a-z, A-Z), digits(0-9), and specific meaning with special characters. Some special characters are operators, while combinations like "
" are escape sequence. In C symbols are used to perform special operations. Some of the special symbols that are used in C programming are as follows ?

[] () {}, ; * = #

Common Characters in C Programming

Let's understand their definitions, which are as follows ?

• Brackets[] ? Opening and closing of brackets are used for array element reference, which indicate single and multidimensional subscripts.

• Parentheses() ? These special symbols are used for function calls and function parameters (Read: Functions in C).

• Braces{} ? Opening and closing of curly braces indicates the start and end of a block of code which contains more than one executable statement.

• Comma (,) ? It is used to separate more than one statements like separating parameters in function calls.

• Colon(:) ? It is an operator which essentially invokes something called as an initialization list.

• Semicolon(;) ? It is called as a statement terminator that indicates the end of one logical entity. That is the reason each individual statement must be ended with a semicolon.

• Asterisk (*) ? It is used to create a pointer variable.

• Assignment operator(=) ? It is used for assigning values.

• Pre-processor (#) ? The pre-processor called as a macro processor is used by the compiler to transform your program before the actual compilation starts.

Example

This program defines a Point structure, a function to print the point, and determines special characters like braces {}, parentheses (), and the arrow operator ->.

#include <stdio.h>

struct Point {
    int x, y;
};

void printPoint(struct Point *p) {
    printf("Point: (%d, %d)
", p->x, p->y);
}

int main() {
    struct Point p = {10, 20};
    printPoint(&p);
    return 0;
}

The result is generated as follows ?

Point: (10, 20)

Special Symbols in C

The table given below is the respective meaning of the special symbols used in the C programming language.

Example

In the example below, we are using basic C programs that explain the use of different symbols. This program performs arithmetic operations(subtraction, addition, remainder, multiplication, division) on two integers, x ,and ,y and prints the result for each operation.

#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
   int x = 10, y = 15;
   int sum, diff, prod, quot, rem;
   sum = x + y;
   diff = x - y;
   quot = y / x;
   rem = y % x;
   prod = x * y;
   printf("Sum: %d
", sum);
   printf("diff: %d
", diff);
   printf("quot: %d
", quot);
   printf("rem: %d
", rem);
   printf("prod: %d
", prod);
   return 0;
}

The result is obtained as follows ?

Sum: 25
diff: -5
quot: 1
rem: 5
prod: 150