Identifiers in C are the basic building block of a program. As the name suggests, they are used to identify user-defined objects. For instance, variables, functions, arrays, structures, unions, labels, etc.
An identifier starts with a letter A to Z, a to z, or an underscore ‘_’ followed by zero or more letters, underscores, and digits (0 to 9).

Rules for composing an identifier in C:

• Identifiers can have alphabets, digits, and underscore characters.
• C does not allow punctuation characters such as @, $, and % within identifiers.
• They must not be a keyword.
• They must not begin with a digit.
• Identifier length should not be more than 31 characters.
• C is case sensitive in nature i.e., upper-case letters and lower-case letters are different.
• Assign indicative names that make sense.

We can create any name as an identifier by following the given rules. Let’s take a look at some examples.

Valid identifiers examples:

variable1   app_2  _xyz  _XYZ  Rst sum1

Invalid identifiers example:

23a @var !$b 09xy

Some facts about identifiers:

• Not all identifiers are variables.
• It is created to give a unique name to an entity.
• Identifiers are tokens.
•  Once declared, we can use the identifier in the later program.

Note: Also read about  C Program – Structure & Keywords in C.

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Rabecca Fatima

Staying up to the mark is what defines me. Hi all! I’m Rabecca Fatima a keen learner, great enthusiast, ready to take new challenges as stepping stones towards flying colors.