Chapter 8 Writing Source Statements
Character Constants 133
8.4 Character Constants
ASCII characters ,which can be displayed, can be coded as character constants or string constants. The
characters that can be used for constants are as follows.
• Digits
• Letters (upper or lower cases)
• Blank letters
• Special characters
NOTE: “\” letters make the following letters valid.
Example: ‘\”, ‘\\’, “\””, “\\”

Character constants

A character constant is stored as an ASCII code in the space of a single character. The method for
specifying character constants differs depending on the coding format.
The coding format is selected using the notation directive. The default is extended C language format.
NOTE: The coding format also applies to numbers. Refer to section 8.3, "Numbers", for
details.
Coding rules:
In extended C format and Intel format, character constants are specified just with the character
enclosed in single quotation marks ( ' ). In Matsushita format, the enclosed character is preceded by the
letter 'C' (or 'c').
The character 'A' (ASCII code 042) is specified in each coding format as follows.
Specifying more than one character (such as C’FEDCBA’ or ’FEDCBA’) will cause an error.
NOTE: To specify a single quotation mark or a backslash for a character constant, a
backslash (\) precedes the character.
Coding Format Character Constant
Extended C language format ‘A’
Matsushita format C’A’ or c’A’
Intel format ‘A’