Double quotes vs single quotes in C

In C you might find yourself using double quotes in some cases, and single quotes in other cases.

In some languages, there’s no difference between the two. But in C, there is difference, and you’ll use one vs the other depending on the need.

When can you use single quotes and when can you use double quotes?

Single quotes are used to identify a single character (char value):

char letter = 'a';

Double quotes are used to create a string literal:

char *name = "Flavio";

Note that you can create a single-letter string literal:

char *letter = "a";

But remember that a string is composed by the characters of the string, plus a 0 character at the end, which makes single-letter string literals take double the space of a single character.

More clang tutorials:

• Introduction to the C Programming Language
• C Variables and types
• C Constants
• C Operators
• C Conditionals
• How to work with loops in C
• Introduction to C Arrays
• How to determine the length of an array in C
• Introduction to C Strings
• How to find the length of a string in C
• Introduction to C Pointers
• Looping through an array with C
• Booleans in C
• Introduction to C Functions
• How to use NULL in C
• Basic I/O concepts in C
• Double quotes vs single quotes in C
• How to return a string from a C function
• How to solve the implicitly declaring library function warning in C
• How to check a character value in C
• How to print the percentage character using `printf()` in C
• C conversion specifiers and modifiers
• How to access the command line parameters in C
• Scope of variables in C
• Can you nest functions in C?
• Static variables in C
• C Global Variables
• The typedef keyword in C
• C Enumerated Types
• C Structures
• C Header Files
• The C Preprocessor