Keywords are the words whose meaning has already been explained to the C compiler (or in a broad sense to the computer). The keywords cannot be used as variable names because if we do so we are trying to assign a new meaning to the keyword, which is not allowed by the computer. Some C compilers allow you to construct variable names that exactly resemble the keywords. However, it would be safer not to mix up the variable names and the keywords. The keywords are also called ‘Reserved words’.
There are only 32 keywords available in C. Figure 1.5 gives a list of these keywords for your ready reference. A detailed discussion of each of these keywords would be taken up in later chapters wherever their use is relevant.
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 that compiler vendors (like Microsoft, Borland, etc.) provide their own keywords apart from the ones mentioned above. These include extended keywords like near, far, asm, etc. Though it has been suggested by the ANSI committee that every such compiler specific keyword should be preceded by two underscores (as in __asm ), not every vendor follows this rule.
