C is a powerful general-purpose programming language. It can be used to develop software like operating systems, databases, compilers, and so on. C programming is an excellent language to learn to program

The C Language is developed by Dennis Ritchie for creating system applications that directly interact with the hardware devices such as drivers, kernels, etc

1. Mother language
2. System programming language
3. Procedure-oriented programming language
4. Structured programming language
5. Mid-level programming language

C Keywords and Identifiers

Character set

A character set is a set of alphabets, letters and some special characters that are valid in C language.

Alphabets

Uppercase: A B C …………………………….. X Y Z Lowercase: a b c ……………………………….. x y z

C accepts both lowercase and uppercase alphabets as variables and functions.

Digits

6.  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Special Characters

Special Characters in C Programming
,	<	>	.	_
(	)	;	$	:
%	[	]	#	?
‘	&	{	}	“
^	!	*	/	|
–	\

C Keywords

Keywords are predefined, reserved words used in programming that have special meanings to the compiler. Keywords are part of the syntax and they cannot be used as an identifier. For example:

int money;

As C is a case sensitive language, all keywords must be written in lowercase. Here is a list of all keywords allowed in ANSI C.

C Keywords
auto	double	int	struct
break	else	long	switch
case	enum	register	typedef
char	extern	return	union
continue	for	signed	void
do	if	static	while
default	goto	sizeof	volatile
const	float	short	unsigned

All these keywords, their syntax, and application will be discussed in their respective topics. However, if you want a brief overview of these keywords without going further,

C Identifiers

Identifier refers to name given to entities such as variables, functions, structures etc.

Identifiers must be unique. They are created to give a unique name to an entity to identify it during the execution of the program. For example:

int money;

double account Balance; Here, money and account Balance are identifiers