C# 3.0 Pocket Reference, 2nd Edition

Strings and Characters

C#’s char type (aliasing the System.Char type) represents a Unicode character, and it occupies two bytes. A char literal is specified inside single quotes:

	char c = 'A';         // simple character

Escape sequencesexpress characters that cannot be expressed or interpreted literally. An escape sequence is a backslash followed by a character with a special meaning. For example:

	char newLine = '\n';
	char backSlash = '\\';

The escape sequence characters are outlined below.

Char	Meaning	Value
\'	Single quote	0x0027
\”	Double quote	0x0022
\\	Backslash	0x005C
\0	Null	0x0000
\a	Alert	0x0007
\b	Backspace	0x0008
\f	Form feed	0x000C
\n	New line	0x000A
\r	Carriage return	0x000D
\t	Horizontal tab	0x0009
\v	Vertical tab	0x000B

The \u (or \x) escape sequence lets you specify any Unicode character via its four-digit hexadecimal code:

	char copyrightSymbol = '\u00A9';
	char omegaSymbol     = '\u03A9';
	char newLine         = '\u000A';

Char Conversions

An implicit conversion from a char to a numeric type works for the numeric types that can accommodate an unsigned short. For other numeric types, an explicit conversion is required.

String Type

C#’s string type (aliasing the System.String type) represents an immutable sequence of Unicode characters. A string literal is specified inside double quotes:

	string a = "Heat";

Note

stringis a reference type, not a value type. Its equality operators, however, implement value-type semantics. ...