Programming languages use identifiers for identification. In other words, an identifier is a user-defined name for a program component. In C#, an identifier is a class name, method name, variable name, or label.
public class test {
static public void Main ()
{
int x;
}
}
Here the total number of identifiers present in the above example is 3 and the names of these identifiers are:
- Test Name of the class
- Main: Method name
- x: Variable name
Rules for defining identifiers in C#:
There are certain valid rules for defining a valid C# identifier. These rules should be followed, otherwise, we will get a compile-time error.
- The only allowed characters for identifiers are all alphanumeric characters([A-Z], [a-z], [0-9]), ‘_‘ (underscore). For example, “codeConfig@” is not a valid C# identifier as it contains ‘@’ – special character.
- Identifiers should not start with digits ([0-9]). For example, “123user” is not valid in the C# identifier.
- Identifiers should not contain white spaces.
- Identifiers are not allowed to use as keywords unless they include @ as a prefix. For example, @as is a valid identifier, but “as” is not because it is a reserved keyword.
- C# identifiers allow Unicode Characters.
- C# identifiers are case-sensitive.
- C# identifiers cannot contain more than 512 characters.
- Identifiers do not contain two consecutive underscores in their name because such types of identifiers are used for the implementation.
class test {
// Main Method
static public void Main()
{
// variable
int a = 10;
int b = 20;
int c;
// simple addition
c = a + b;
Console.WriteLine("The sum of two number is: {0}", c);
}
}
The sum of two number is: 30
Below table shows the identifiers and keywords present in the above example:
Keywords | Identifiers |
---|---|
using | test |
public | Main |
static | a |
void | b |
int | c |
In this article we tried to explain C# | Identifiers with Examples. I hope you enjoyed reading this article. For more information you can check out Microsoft learn.
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