C# char

Summary: in this tutorial, you’ll learn about the C# char type and how to use it to declare variables that hold a single character.

Introduction to the C# char type

C# uses the char keyword to represent the character type. A variable of the char type can hold a single character. The char is an alias for the .NET System.Char type.

C# char literals

C# provides you with three ways to represent a character literal:

• A character literal.
• A Unicode escape sequence.
• A hexadecimal escape sequence.

All three character literals are surrounded by single quotes.

For example, the following declares a variable that holds the character ‘a’:

char key = 'a';Code language: C# (cs)

A Unicode escape sequence starts with \u and is followed by a four-symbol hexadecimal representation of the character code. For example:

char c = '\u002B'Code language: C# (cs)

A hexadecimal escape sequence starts with \x and the hexadecimal representation of the character code:

char c = '\x002C'Code language: C# (cs)

Operators

The char type support equality, comparison, increment, and decrement operators.

For example, the following compares two character variables and returns True because they are the same character 'a':

char c1 = 'a',
     c2 = 'a';

bool result = c1 == c2;

Console.WriteLine(result);Code language: C# (cs)

Output:

TrueCode language: C# (cs)

If you assign the character 'b' to the c2 variable, the result of the equality test will be false:

char c1 = 'a',
     c2 = 'b';

bool result = c1 == c2;

Console.WriteLine(result);Code language: C# (cs)

Output:

FalseCode language: C# (cs)

Similar to the equality operator, you can use other comparison operators like <, >, <=, and => to compare two characters:

char c1 = 'a',
     c2 = 'b';

bool result = c1 < c2;

Console.WriteLine(result);Code language: C# (cs)

Output:

TrueCode language: C# (cs)

Summary

• Use the char keyword to represent the character type that holds a single character.