Character Set in C
In C programming, a character set is a set of characters that is used to represent the letters, digits, and other symbols in a computer. The character set refers to a set of all the valid characters that we can use in the source program for forming words, expressions, and numbers.
The C programming language provides support for the following types of characters. In other words, these are the valid characters that we can use in the C language:
- Alphabets
- Digits
- Special Symbols
Alphabets
The C programming language provides support for all the alphabets that we use in the English language. Thus, in simpler words, a C program would easily support a total of 52 different characters- 26 uppercase and 26 lowercase.
Digits
In C Programming we can use digits using character 0 to 9. All the numeric values will be generated from these 0 to 9 range.
Special Characters
In C Programming we can use special characters for some special purposes, such as logical operations, mathematical operations, checking of conditions, backspaces, white spaces, etc.
Use of Character Set in C
Character sets are used in C programming for a variety of purposes. One of the main uses of character sets is to represent text in a computer. This can be done by storing the numerical values that correspond to the characters in a character set in a character array or a string.
Character sets are also used in C to perform operations on characters, such as comparing characters, converting between uppercase and lowercase, and sorting strings.
In addition, character sets are used to specify the encoding of text files, which determines how the characters in the file are represented in the computer's memory. Different character sets may be used depending on the language of the text and the needs of the application.
White Spaces
The white spaces in the C programming language contain the following:
- Blank Spaces
- Carriage Return
- Tab
- New Line