C Character Data Types

The char Type

The char data type is used to store a single character.

The character must be surrounded by single quotes, like ‘A’ or ‘c’, and we use the %c format specifier to print it:

char myGrade = 'A';
printf("%c", myGrade);

Alternatively, if you are familiar with ASCII, you can use ASCII values to display certain characters. Note that these values are not surrounded by quotes (''), as they are numbers:

char a = 65, b = 66, c = 67;
printf("%c", a);
printf("%c", b);
printf("%c", c);

Notes on Characters

If you try to store more than a single character, it will only print the last character:

char myText = 'Hello';
printf("%c", myText);

To store multiple characters (or whole words), use strings (which you will learn more about in a later chapter):

char myText[] = "Hello";
printf("%s", myText);