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It is often abbreviated as NUL (or NULL, though in some contexts that term is used for the null pointer). In 8-bit codes, it is known as a null byte . The original meaning of this character was like NOP —when sent to a printer or a terminal , it has no effect (some terminals, however, incorrectly display it as space ).
For example, even though most implementations of C and C++ on 32-bit systems define type int to be four octets, this size may change when code is ported to a different system, breaking the code. The exception to this is the data type char, which always has the size 1 in any standards-compliant C implementation
The maximum size of size_t is provided via SIZE_MAX, a macro constant which is defined in the <stdint.h> header (cstdint header in C++). size_t is guaranteed to be at least 16 bits wide. Additionally, POSIX includes ssize_t, which is a signed integer type of the same width as size_t.
In C, two null pointers of any type are guaranteed to compare equal. [3] Prior to C23, the preprocessor macro NULL was provided, defined as an implementation-defined null pointer constant in <stdlib.h>, [4] which in C99 can be portably expressed as ((void *)0), the integer value 0 converted to the type void* (see pointer to void type). [5]
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 6 January 2025. General-purpose programming language "C programming language" redirects here. For the book, see The C Programming Language. Not to be confused with C++ or C#. C Logotype used on the cover of the first edition of The C Programming Language Paradigm Multi-paradigm: imperative (procedural ...
C designer Dennis Ritchie 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. [2] [3] This had some influence on CPU instruction set design.
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C string literals are null-terminated; that is to say, a trailing null character as an end-of-string sentinel: const char * p ; p = "the rain in Spain" ; /* null-terminated */ Null-termination must be manually maintained for string variables stored in arrays (this is often partly handled by library routines).