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Null-terminated string - Wikipedia

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<div class="mw-indicators"> </div> <div id="siteSub" class="noprint">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</div> </div> <div id="contentSub"><div id="mw-content-subtitle"></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">Data structure</div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">"CString" redirects here. For other uses, see <a href="/wiki/C_string_(disambiguation)" class="mw-redirect mw-disambig" title="C string (disambiguation)">C string (disambiguation)</a>.</div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951"><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="/wiki/String_(computer_science)#Null-terminated" title="String (computer science)">String (computer science) §&#160;Null-terminated</a></div> <p class="mw-empty-elt"> </p><p>In <a href="/wiki/Computer_programming" title="Computer programming">computer programming</a>, a <b>null-terminated string</b> is a <a href="/wiki/Character_string" class="mw-redirect" title="Character string">character string</a> stored as an <a href="/wiki/Array_data_structure" class="mw-redirect" title="Array data structure">array</a> containing the characters and terminated with a <i><a href="/wiki/Null_character" title="Null character">null character</a></i> (a character with an internal value of zero, called "NUL" in this article, not same as the <a href="/wiki/Glyph" title="Glyph">glyph</a> zero). Alternative names are <i><a href="/wiki/C_string_handling" title="C string handling">C string</a></i>, which refers to the <a href="/wiki/C_(programming_language)" title="C (programming language)">C programming language</a> and <b>ASCIIZ</b><sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">&#91;</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">&#93;</span></a></sup> (although C can use encodings other than <a href="/wiki/ASCII" title="ASCII">ASCII</a>). </p><p>The length of a string is found by searching for the (first) NUL. This can be slow as it takes O(<i>n</i>) (<a href="/wiki/Linear_time" class="mw-redirect" title="Linear time">linear time</a>) with respect to the string length. It also means that a string cannot contain a NUL (there is a NUL in memory, but it is after the last character, not <em>in</em> the string). </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="History">History</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Null-terminated_string&amp;action=edit&amp;section=1" title="Edit section: History"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Null-terminated strings were produced by the <code>.ASCIZ</code> directive of the <a href="/wiki/PDP-11" title="PDP-11">PDP-11</a> <a href="/wiki/Assembly_language" title="Assembly language">assembly languages</a> and the <code>ASCIZ</code> directive of the <a href="/wiki/MACRO-10" title="MACRO-10">MACRO-10</a> macro assembly language for the <a href="/wiki/PDP-10" title="PDP-10">PDP-10</a>. These predate the development of the C programming language, but other forms of strings were often used. </p><p>At the time C (and the languages that it was derived from) was developed, memory was extremely limited, so using only one byte of overhead to store the length of a string was attractive. The only popular alternative at that time, usually called a "Pascal string" (a more modern term is "<a href="/wiki/String_(computer_science)#Length-prefixed" title="String (computer science)">length-prefixed</a>"), used a leading <i>byte</i> to store the length of the string. This allows the string to contain NUL and made finding the length need only one memory access (O(1) <a href="/wiki/Constant_time" class="mw-redirect" title="Constant time">(constant) time</a>), but limited string length to 255 characters. C designer <a href="/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie" title="Dennis Ritchie">Dennis Ritchie</a> chose to follow the convention of null-termination to avoid the limitation on the length of a string and because maintaining the count seemed, in his experience, less convenient than using a terminator.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">&#91;</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">&#93;</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">&#91;</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">&#93;</span></a></sup> </p><p>This had some influence on CPU <a href="/wiki/Instruction_set" class="mw-redirect" title="Instruction set">instruction set</a> design. Some CPUs in the 1970s and 1980s, such as the <a href="/wiki/Zilog_Z80" title="Zilog Z80">Zilog Z80</a> and the <a href="/wiki/Digital_Equipment_Corporation" title="Digital Equipment Corporation">DEC</a> <a href="/wiki/VAX" title="VAX">VAX</a>, had dedicated instructions for handling length-prefixed strings. However, as the null-terminated string gained traction, CPU designers began to take it into account, as seen for example in IBM's decision to add the "Logical String Assist" instructions to the <a href="/wiki/IBM_ES/9000_family" class="mw-redirect" title="IBM ES/9000 family">ES/9000</a> 520 in 1992 and the vector string instructions to the <a href="/wiki/IBM_z13_(microprocessor)" class="mw-redirect" title="IBM z13 (microprocessor)">IBM z13</a> in 2015.<sup id="cite_ref-pop_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-pop-4"><span class="cite-bracket">&#91;</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">&#93;</span></a></sup> </p><p><a href="/wiki/FreeBSD" title="FreeBSD">FreeBSD</a> developer <a href="/wiki/Poul-Henning_Kamp" title="Poul-Henning Kamp">Poul-Henning Kamp</a>, writing in <i><a href="/wiki/ACM_Queue" title="ACM Queue">ACM Queue</a></i>, referred to the victory of null-terminated strings over a 2-byte (not one-byte) length as "the most expensive one-byte mistake" ever.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">&#91;</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">&#93;</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Limitations">Limitations</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Null-terminated_string&amp;action=edit&amp;section=2" title="Edit section: Limitations"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>While simple to implement, this representation has been prone to errors and performance problems. </p><p>Null-termination has historically created <a href="/wiki/Computer_insecurity" class="mw-redirect" title="Computer insecurity">security problems</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">&#91;</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">&#93;</span></a></sup> A NUL inserted into the middle of a string will truncate it unexpectedly.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">&#91;</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">&#93;</span></a></sup> A common bug was to not allocate the additional space for the NUL, so it was written over adjacent memory. Another was to not write the NUL at all, which was often not detected during testing because the block of memory already contained zeros. Due to the expense of finding the length, many programs did not bother before copying a string to a fixed-size <a href="/wiki/Data_buffer" title="Data buffer">buffer</a>, causing a <a href="/wiki/Buffer_overflow" title="Buffer overflow">buffer overflow</a> if it was too long. </p><p>The inability to store a zero requires that text and binary data be kept distinct and handled by different functions (with the latter requiring the length of the data to also be supplied). This can lead to code redundancy and errors when the wrong function is used. </p><p>The speed problems with finding the length can usually be mitigated by combining it with another operation that is O(<i>n</i>) anyway, such as in <code><a href="/wiki/Strlcpy" class="mw-redirect" title="Strlcpy">strlcpy</a></code>. However, this does not always result in an intuitive <a href="/wiki/API" title="API">API</a>. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Character_encodings">Character encodings</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Null-terminated_string&amp;action=edit&amp;section=3" title="Edit section: Character encodings"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Null-terminated strings require that the encoding does not use a zero byte (0x00) anywhere; therefore it is not possible to store every possible <a href="/wiki/ASCII" title="ASCII">ASCII</a> or <a href="/wiki/UTF-8" title="UTF-8">UTF-8</a> string.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">&#91;</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">&#93;</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">&#91;</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">&#93;</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">&#91;</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">&#93;</span></a></sup> However, it is common to store the subset of ASCII or UTF-8 – every character except NUL – in null-terminated strings. Some systems use "<a href="/wiki/Modified_UTF-8" class="mw-redirect" title="Modified UTF-8">modified UTF-8</a>" which encodes NUL as two non-zero bytes (0xC0, 0x80) and thus allow all possible strings to be stored. This is not allowed by the UTF-8 standard, because it is an <a href="/wiki/UTF-8#Overlong_encodings" title="UTF-8">overlong encoding</a>, and it is seen as a security risk. Some other byte may be used as end of string instead, like 0xFE or 0xFF, which are not used in UTF-8. </p><p><a href="/wiki/UTF-16" title="UTF-16">UTF-16</a> uses 2-byte integers and as either byte may be zero (and in fact <i>every other</i> byte is, when representing ASCII text), cannot be stored in a null-terminated byte string. However, some languages implement a string of 16-bit <a href="/wiki/UTF-16" title="UTF-16">UTF-16</a> characters, terminated by a 16-bit NUL (0x0000). </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Improvements">Improvements</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Null-terminated_string&amp;action=edit&amp;section=4" title="Edit section: Improvements"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Many attempts to make C string handling less error prone have been made. One strategy is to add safer functions such as <code><a href="/wiki/Strdup" class="mw-redirect" title="Strdup">strdup</a></code> and <code><a href="/wiki/Strlcpy" class="mw-redirect" title="Strlcpy">strlcpy</a></code>, whilst <a href="/wiki/C_standard_library#Buffer_overflow_vulnerabilities" title="C standard library">deprecating the use of unsafe functions</a> such as <code><a href="/wiki/Gets()" class="mw-redirect" title="Gets()"> gets</a></code>. Another is to add an object-oriented wrapper around C strings so that only safe calls can be done. However, it is possible to call the unsafe functions anyway. </p><p>Most modern libraries replace C strings with a structure containing a 32-bit or larger length value (far more than were ever considered for length-prefixed strings), and often add another pointer, a reference count, and even a NUL to speed up conversion back to a C string. Memory is far larger now, such that if the addition of 3 (or 16, or more) bytes to each string is a real problem the software will have to be dealing with so many small strings that some other storage method will save even more memory (for instance there may be so many duplicates that a <a href="/wiki/Hash_table" title="Hash table">hash table</a> will use less memory). Examples include the <a href="/wiki/C%2B%2B" title="C++">C++</a> <a href="/wiki/Standard_Template_Library" title="Standard Template Library">Standard Template Library</a> <code><a href="/wiki/String_(C%2B%2B)" class="mw-redirect" title="String (C++)">std::string</a></code>, the <a href="/wiki/Qt_(toolkit)" class="mw-redirect" title="Qt (toolkit)">Qt</a> <code>QString</code>, the <a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Foundation_Class_Library" title="Microsoft Foundation Class Library">MFC</a> <code>CString</code>, and the C-based implementation <code>CFString</code> from <a href="/wiki/Core_Foundation" title="Core Foundation">Core Foundation</a> as well as its <a href="/wiki/Objective-C" title="Objective-C">Objective-C</a> sibling <code>NSString</code> from <a href="/wiki/Foundation_Kit" title="Foundation Kit">Foundation</a>, both by Apple. More complex structures may also be used to store strings such as the <a href="/wiki/Rope_(computer_science)" class="mw-redirect" title="Rope (computer science)">rope</a>. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Null-terminated_string&amp;action=edit&amp;section=5" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Empty_string" title="Empty string">Empty string</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sentinel_value" title="Sentinel value">Sentinel value</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Null-terminated_string&amp;action=edit&amp;section=6" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://people.scs.carleton.ca/~sivarama/org_book/org_book_web/solution_manual/org_soln_one/arch_book_solution_ch15.pdf">"Chapter 15 - MIPS Assembly Language"</a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span>. <i>Carleton University</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. 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.navbox{display:none!important}}</style></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="C_programming_language527" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks hlist mw-collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="2"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239400231">.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:inline;font-size:88%;font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .navbar-collapse{float:left;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .navbar-boxtext{word-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .navbar ul{display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;line-height:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::before{margin-right:-0.125em;content:"[ "}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::after{margin-left:-0.125em;content:" ]"}.mw-parser-output .navbar li{word-spacing:-0.125em}.mw-parser-output .navbar a>span,.mw-parser-output .navbar a>abbr{text-decoration:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-mini abbr{font-variant:small-caps;border-bottom:none;text-decoration:none;cursor:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-full{font-size:114%;margin:0 7em}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-mini{font-size:114%;margin:0 4em}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}@media(prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}}@media print{.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:none!important}}</style><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:C_programming_language" title="Template:C programming language"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:C_programming_language" title="Template talk:C programming language"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:C_programming_language" title="Special:EditPage/Template:C programming language"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="C_programming_language527" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/C_(programming_language)" title="C (programming language)">C programming language</a></div></th></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="2"><div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/ANSI_C" title="ANSI C">ANSI C</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C99" title="C99">C99</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C11_(C_standard_revision)" title="C11 (C standard revision)">C11</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C17_(C_standard_revision)" title="C17 (C standard revision)">C17</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C23_(C_standard_revision)" title="C23 (C standard revision)">C23</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Embedded_C" title="Embedded C">Embedded C</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/MISRA_C" title="MISRA C">MISRA C</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Features</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Subroutine" class="mw-redirect" title="Subroutine">Functions</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Include_directive#C" title="Include directive">Header files</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Operators_in_C_and_C%2B%2B" title="Operators in C and C++">Operators</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C_string_handling" title="C string handling">String</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C_syntax" title="C syntax">Syntax</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C_preprocessor" title="C preprocessor">Preprocessor</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C_data_types" title="C data types">Data types</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/C_standard_library" title="C standard library">Standard library</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" class="navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/C_character_classification" title="C character classification">Char</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C_file_input/output" title="C file input/output">File I/O</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C_mathematical_functions" title="C mathematical functions">Math</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C_dynamic_memory_allocation" title="C dynamic memory allocation">Dynamic memory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C_string_handling" title="C string handling">String</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C_date_and_time_functions" title="C date and time functions">Time</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Stdarg.h" title="Stdarg.h">Variadic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C_POSIX_library" title="C POSIX library">POSIX</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Implementations</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Bionic_(software)" title="Bionic (software)">Bionic</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Hybris_(software)" class="mw-redirect" title="Hybris (software)">libhybris</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dietlibc" title="Dietlibc">dietlibc</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Glibc" title="Glibc">glibc</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Embedded_GLIBC" class="mw-redirect" title="Embedded GLIBC">EGLIBC</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Klibc" title="Klibc">klibc</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Windows_library_files" title="Microsoft Windows library files">Windows CRT</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Musl" title="Musl">musl</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Newlib" title="Newlib">Newlib</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/UClibc" title="UClibc">uClibc</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/List_of_C_compilers" class="mw-redirect" title="List of C compilers">Compilers</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Amsterdam_Compiler_Kit" title="Amsterdam Compiler Kit">ACK</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Borland_Turbo_C" class="mw-redirect" title="Borland Turbo C">Borland Turbo C</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Clang" title="Clang">Clang</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/GNU_Compiler_Collection" title="GNU Compiler Collection">GCC</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intel_C%2B%2B_Compiler" title="Intel C++ Compiler">ICC</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/LCC_(compiler)" title="LCC (compiler)">LCC</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Norcroft_C_compiler" title="Norcroft C compiler">Norcroft C</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Portable_C_Compiler" title="Portable C Compiler">PCC</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Small_Device_C_Compiler" title="Small Device C Compiler">SDCC</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tiny_C_Compiler" title="Tiny C Compiler">TCC</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Visual_Studio" title="Visual Studio">Visual Studio</a>, <a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_Studio_Express" title="Microsoft Visual Studio Express">Express</a>, <a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_C%2B%2B" title="Microsoft Visual C++">C++</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Watcom_C/C%2B%2B" title="Watcom C/C++">Watcom C/C++</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Integrated_development_environment" title="Integrated development environment">IDEs</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Anjuta" title="Anjuta">Anjuta</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/CLion" class="mw-redirect" title="CLion">CLion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Code::Blocks" title="Code::Blocks">Code::Blocks</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/CodeLite" title="CodeLite">CodeLite</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Eclipse_(software)" title="Eclipse (software)">Eclipse</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Geany" title="Geany">Geany</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/GNOME_Builder" title="GNOME Builder">GNOME Builder</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/KDevelop" title="KDevelop">KDevelop</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Visual_Studio" title="Visual Studio">Visual Studio</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/NetBeans" title="NetBeans">NetBeans</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Comparison with<br />other languages</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Compatibility_of_C_and_C%2B%2B" title="Compatibility of C and C++">Compatibility of C and C++</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_of_Pascal_and_C" title="Comparison of Pascal and C">Comparison with Pascal</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Descendant<br />languages</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/C%2B%2B" title="C++">C++</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/C_Sharp_(programming_language)" title="C Sharp (programming language)">C#</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/D_(programming_language)" title="D (programming language)">D</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Objective-C" title="Objective-C">Objective-C</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Alef_(programming_language)" title="Alef (programming language)">Alef</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Limbo_(programming_language)" title="Limbo (programming language)">Limbo</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Go_(programming_language)" title="Go (programming language)">Go</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Vala_(programming_language)" title="Vala (programming language)">Vala</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Designer</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie" title="Dennis Ritchie">Dennis Ritchie</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="2"><div> <ul><li><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><span title="Category"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/16px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="16" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/23px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/31px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="180" data-file-height="185" /></span></span> <b><a href="/wiki/Category:C_(programming_language)" title="Category:C (programming language)">Category</a></b></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div> <div class="navbox-styles"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236075235"></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="Data_types177" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks hlist mw-collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="2"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239400231"><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Data_types" title="Template:Data types"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Data_types" title="Template talk:Data types"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Data_types" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Data types"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="Data_types177" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/Data_type" title="Data type">Data types</a></div></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Units_of_information" title="Units of information">Uninterpreted</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Bit" title="Bit">Bit</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Byte" title="Byte">Byte</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ternary_numeral_system" title="Ternary numeral system">Trit</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ternary_numeral_system#Tryte" title="Ternary numeral system">Tryte</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Word_(computer_architecture)" title="Word (computer architecture)">Word</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bit_array" title="Bit array">Bit array</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Numeric</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Arbitrary-precision_arithmetic" title="Arbitrary-precision arithmetic">Arbitrary-precision or bignum</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Complex_data_type" title="Complex data type">Complex</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Decimal_data_type" title="Decimal data type">Decimal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fixed-point_arithmetic" title="Fixed-point arithmetic">Fixed point</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Floating-point_arithmetic" title="Floating-point arithmetic">Floating point</a> <ul><li>Reduced precision <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Minifloat" title="Minifloat">Minifloat</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Half-precision_floating-point_format" title="Half-precision floating-point format">Half precision</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bfloat16_floating-point_format" title="Bfloat16 floating-point format">bfloat16</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Single-precision_floating-point_format" title="Single-precision floating-point format">Single precision</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Double-precision_floating-point_format" title="Double-precision floating-point format">Double precision</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Quadruple-precision_floating-point_format" title="Quadruple-precision floating-point format">Quadruple precision</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Octuple-precision_floating-point_format" title="Octuple-precision floating-point format">Octuple precision</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Extended_precision" title="Extended precision">Extended precision</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Long_double" title="Long double">Long double</a></li></ul></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Integer_(computer_science)" title="Integer (computer science)">Integer</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Signedness" title="Signedness">signedness</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Interval_arithmetic#Implementations" title="Interval arithmetic">Interval</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rational_data_type" title="Rational data type">Rational</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Pointer_(computer_programming)" title="Pointer (computer programming)">Pointer</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Memory_address" title="Memory address">Address</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Physical_address" title="Physical address">physical</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Virtual_address_space" title="Virtual address space">virtual</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reference_(computer_science)" title="Reference (computer science)">Reference</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Plain_text" title="Plain text">Text</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Character_(computing)" title="Character (computing)">Character</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/String_(computer_science)" title="String (computer science)">String</a> <ul><li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">null-terminated</a></li></ul></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Composite_data_type" title="Composite data type">Composite</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Algebraic_data_type" title="Algebraic data type">Algebraic data type</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Generalized_algebraic_data_type" title="Generalized algebraic data type">generalized</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Array_data_type" class="mw-redirect" title="Array data type">Array</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Associative_array" title="Associative array">Associative array</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Class_(computer_programming)" title="Class (computer programming)">Class</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dependent_type" title="Dependent type">Dependent</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intuitionistic_type_theory#Equality_type" title="Intuitionistic type theory">Equality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Inductive_type" title="Inductive type">Inductive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intersection_type" title="Intersection type">Intersection</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_(abstract_data_type)" title="List (abstract data type)">List</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Object_(computer_science)" title="Object (computer science)">Object</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Metaobject" title="Metaobject">metaobject</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Option_type" title="Option type">Option type</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Product_type" title="Product type">Product</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Record_(computer_science)" title="Record (computer science)">Record or Struct</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Refinement_type" title="Refinement type">Refinement</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Set_(abstract_data_type)" title="Set (abstract data type)">Set</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Union_type" title="Union type">Union</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Tagged_union" title="Tagged union">tagged</a></li></ul></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Other</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Boolean_data_type" title="Boolean data type">Boolean</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bottom_type" title="Bottom type">Bottom type</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Container_(abstract_data_type)" title="Container (abstract data type)">Collection</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Enumerated_type" title="Enumerated type">Enumerated type</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Exception_handling" title="Exception handling">Exception</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Function_type" title="Function type">Function type</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Opaque_data_type" title="Opaque data type">Opaque data type</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Recursive_data_type" title="Recursive data type">Recursive data type</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Semaphore_(programming)" title="Semaphore (programming)">Semaphore</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Stream_(computing)" title="Stream (computing)">Stream</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Strongly_typed_identifier" title="Strongly typed identifier">Strongly typed identifier</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Top_type" title="Top type">Top type</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Type_class" title="Type class">Type class</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Empty_type" title="Empty type">Empty type</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Unit_type" title="Unit type">Unit type</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Void_type" title="Void type">Void</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Related<br />topics</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Abstract_data_type" title="Abstract data type">Abstract data type</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Boxing_(computer_science)" class="mw-redirect" title="Boxing (computer science)">Boxing</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Data_structure" title="Data structure">Data structure</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Generic_programming" title="Generic programming">Generic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Kind_(type_theory)" title="Kind (type theory)">Kind</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Metaclass" title="Metaclass">metaclass</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Parametric_polymorphism" title="Parametric polymorphism">Parametric polymorphism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Primitive_data_type" title="Primitive data type">Primitive data type</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Interface_(object-oriented_programming)" title="Interface (object-oriented 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