Chapter 3. Literals

In C source code, a literal is a token that denotes a fixed value, which may be an integer , a floating-point number, a character, or a string. A literal's type is determined by its value and its notation.

The literals discussed here are different from compound literals , which were introduced in the C99 standard. Compound literals are ordinary modifiable objects, similar to variables. For a full description of compound literals and the special operator used to create them, see Chapter 5.