C Language Keywords

Posted on December 25, 2009

What are Keywords in C Language ?

Keywords are the words that convey a special meaning to the “C compiler“. These are reserved for a special purpose.

Keywords are also called as “reserved words”. We cannot use keywords as variable names because if we do so then it means that we are assigning some new meaning to the keyword. If we happen to use a keyword as a variable then the compiler will not execute the code and an error condition will be raised.

There are few C compilers which allow us to declare identifiers or variable names that exactly resemble the keywords. However, one should keep in mind not to mix up variables with the keywords.

Keywords or Reserved Key Words in C Language:

In total there are only 32 keywords available in C. The list of the keywords available in C is given below :

auto	double	int	struct
break	else	long	switch
case	enum	register	typedef
char	extern	return	union
const	float	short	unsigned
continue	for	signed	void
default	goto	sizeof	volatile
do	if	static	while

Note: Compiler vendors like Microsoft, Borland, etc provide some of their own keywords which are different from the keywords mentioned above. Such keywords are preceded by underscore `_` sign. E.g. _volatile.

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