5 Lexical conventions [lex]

There are several kinds of literals.22

literal:
	integer-literal
	character-literal
	floating-literal
	string-literal
	boolean-literal
	pointer-literal
	user-defined-literal

An integer literal is a sequence of digits that has no period or exponent part, with optional separating single quotes that are ignored when determining its value. An integer literal may have a prefix that specifies its base and a suffix that specifies its type. The lexically first digit of the sequence of digits is the most significant. A binary integer literal (base two) begins with 0b or 0B and consists of a sequence of binary digits. An octal integer literal (base eight) begins with the digit 0 and consists of a sequence of octal digits.23 A decimal integer literal (base ten) begins with a digit other than 0 and consists of a sequence of decimal digits. A hexadecimal integer literal (base sixteen) begins with 0x or 0X and consists of a sequence of hexadecimal digits, which include the decimal digits and the letters a through f and A through F with decimal values ten through fifteen. [ Example: The number twelve can be written 12, 014, 0XC, or 0b1100. The integer literals 1048576, 1'048'576, 0X100000, 0x10'0000, and 0'004'000'000 all have the same value.  — end example ]

The type of an integer literal is the first of the corresponding list in Table 7 in which its value can be represented.

If an integer literal cannot be represented by any type in its list and an extended integer type can represent its value, it may have that extended integer type. If all of the types in the list for the integer literal are signed, the extended integer type shall be signed. If all of the types in the list for the integer literal are unsigned, the extended integer type shall be unsigned. If the list contains both signed and unsigned types, the extended integer type may be signed or unsigned. A program is ill-formed if one of its translation units contains an integer literal that cannot be represented by any of the allowed types.

A character literal is one or more characters enclosed in single quotes, as in 'x', optionally preceded by u8, u, U, or L, as in u8'w', u'x', U'y', or L'z', respectively.

A character literal that does not begin with u8, u, U, or L is an ordinary character literal. An ordinary character literal that contains a single c-char representable in the execution character set has type char, with value equal to the numerical value of the encoding of the c-char in the execution character set. An ordinary character literal that contains more than one c-char is a multicharacter literal. A multicharacter literal, or an ordinary character literal containing a single c-char not representable in the execution character set, is conditionally-supported, has type int, and has an implementation-defined value.

A character literal that begins with u8, such as u8'w', is a character literal of type char, known as a UTF-8 character literal. The value of a UTF-8 character literal is equal to its ISO 10646 code point value, provided that the code point value is representable with a single UTF-8 code unit (that is, provided it is in the C0 Controls and Basic Latin Unicode block). If the value is not representable with a single UTF-8 code unit, the program is ill-formed. A UTF-8 character literal containing multiple c-chars is ill-formed.

A character literal that begins with the letter u, such as u'x', is a character literal of type char16_­t. The value of a char16_­t character literal containing a single c-char is equal to its ISO 10646 code point value, provided that the code point is representable with a single 16-bit code unit. (That is, provided it is a basic multi-lingual plane code point.) If the value is not representable within 16 bits, the program is ill-formed. A char16_­t character literal containing multiple c-chars is ill-formed.

A character literal that begins with the letter U, such as U'y', is a character literal of type char32_­t. The value of a char32_­t character literal containing a single c-char is equal to its ISO 10646 code point value. A char32_­t character literal containing multiple c-chars is ill-formed.

A character literal that begins with the letter L, such as L'z', is a wide-character literal. A wide-character literal has type wchar_­t.24 The value of a wide-character literal containing a single c-char has value equal to the numerical value of the encoding of the c-char in the execution wide-character set, unless the c-char has no representation in the execution wide-character set, in which case the value is implementation-defined. [ Note: The type wchar_­t is able to represent all members of the execution wide-character set (see [basic.fundamental]).  — end note ] The value of a wide-character literal containing multiple c-chars is implementation-defined.

Certain non-graphic characters, the single quote ', the double quote ", the question mark ?,25 and the backslash \, can be represented according to Table 8. The double quote " and the question mark ?, can be represented as themselves or by the escape sequences \" and \? respectively, but the single quote ' and the backslash \ shall be represented by the escape sequences \' and \\ respectively. Escape sequences in which the character following the backslash is not listed in Table 8 are conditionally-supported, with implementation-defined semantics. An escape sequence specifies a single character.

The escape \ooo consists of the backslash followed by one, two, or three octal digits that are taken to specify the value of the desired character. The escape \xhhh consists of the backslash followed by x followed by one or more hexadecimal digits that are taken to specify the value of the desired character. There is no limit to the number of digits in a hexadecimal sequence. A sequence of octal or hexadecimal digits is terminated by the first character that is not an octal digit or a hexadecimal digit, respectively. The value of a character literal is implementation-defined if it falls outside of the implementation-defined range defined for char (for character literals with no prefix) or wchar_­t (for character literals prefixed by L). [ Note: If the value of a character literal prefixed by u, u8, or U is outside the range defined for its type, the program is ill-formed.  — end note ]

A universal-character-name is translated to the encoding, in the appropriate execution character set, of the character named. If there is no such encoding, the universal-character-name is translated to an implementation-defined encoding. [ Note: In translation phase 1, a universal-character-name is introduced whenever an actual extended character is encountered in the source text. Therefore, all extended characters are described in terms of universal-character-names. However, the actual compiler implementation may use its own native character set, so long as the same results are obtained.  — end note ]

A floating literal consists of an optional prefix specifying a base, an integer part, a radix point, a fraction part, an e, E, p or P, an optionally signed integer exponent, and an optional type suffix. The integer and fraction parts both consist of a sequence of decimal (base ten) digits if there is no prefix, or hexadecimal (base sixteen) digits if the prefix is 0x or 0X. The floating literal is a decimal floating literal in the former case and a hexadecimal floating literal in the latter case. Optional separating single quotes in a digit-sequence or hexadecimal-digit-sequence are ignored when determining its value. [ Example: The floating literals 1.602'176'565e-19 and 1.602176565e-19 have the same value.  — end example ] Either the integer part or the fraction part (not both) can be omitted. Either the radix point or the letter e or E and the exponent (not both) can be omitted from a decimal floating literal. The radix point (but not the exponent) can be omitted from a hexadecimal floating literal. The integer part, the optional radix point, and the optional fraction part, form the significand of the floating literal. In a decimal floating literal, the exponent, if present, indicates the power of 10 by which the significand is to be scaled. In a hexadecimal floating literal, the exponent indicates the power of 2 by which the significand is to be scaled. [ Example: The floating literals 49.625 and 0xC.68p+2 have the same value.  — end example ] If the scaled value is in the range of representable values for its type, the result is the scaled value if representable, else the larger or smaller representable value nearest the scaled value, chosen in an implementation-defined manner. The type of a floating literal is double unless explicitly specified by a suffix. The suffixes f and F specify float, the suffixes l and L specify long double. If the scaled value is not in the range of representable values for its type, the program is ill-formed.

A string-literal is a sequence of characters (as defined in [lex.ccon]) surrounded by double quotes, optionally prefixed by R, u8, u8R, u, uR, U, UR, L, or LR, as in "...", R"(...)", u8"...", u8R"**(...)**", u"...", uR"*~(...)*~", U"...", UR"zzz(...)zzz", L"...", or LR"(...)", respectively.

A string-literal that has an R in the prefix is a raw string literal. The d-char-sequence serves as a delimiter. The terminating d-char-sequence of a raw-string is the same sequence of characters as the initial d-char-sequence. A d-char-sequence shall consist of at most 16 characters.

[ Note: The characters '(' and ')' are permitted in a raw-string. Thus, R"delimiter((a|b))delimiter" is equivalent to "(a|b)".  — end note ]

[ Note: A source-file new-line in a raw string literal results in a new-line in the resulting execution string literal. Assuming no whitespace at the beginning of lines in the following example, the assert will succeed:

const char* p = R"(a\
b
c)";
assert(std::strcmp(p, "a\\\nb\nc") == 0);

 — end note ]

[ Example: The raw string

R"a(
)\
a"
)a"

is equivalent to "\n)\\\na\"\n". The raw string

R"(??)"

is equivalent to "\?\?". The raw string

R"#(
)??="
)#"

is equivalent to "\n)\?\?=\"\n".  — end example ]

After translation phase 6, a string-literal that does not begin with an encoding-prefix is an ordinary string literal, and is initialized with the given characters.

A string-literal that begins with u8, such as u8"asdf", is a UTF-8 string literal.

Ordinary string literals and UTF-8 string literals are also referred to as narrow string literals. A narrow string literal has type “array of n const char”, where n is the size of the string as defined below, and has static storage duration.

For a UTF-8 string literal, each successive element of the object representation has the value of the corresponding code unit of the UTF-8 encoding of the string.

A string-literal that begins with u, such as u"asdf", is a char16_­t string literal. A char16_­t string literal has type “array of n const char16_­t”, where n is the size of the string as defined below; it is initialized with the given characters. A single c-char may produce more than one char16_­t character in the form of surrogate pairs.

A string-literal that begins with U, such as U"asdf", is a char32_­t string literal. A char32_­t string literal has type “array of n const char32_­t”, where n is the size of the string as defined below; it is initialized with the given characters.

A string-literal that begins with L, such as L"asdf", is a wide string literal. A wide string literal has type “array of n const wchar_­t”, where n is the size of the string as defined below; it is initialized with the given characters.

In translation phase 6, adjacent string-literals are concatenated. If both string-literals have the same encoding-prefix, the resulting concatenated string literal has that encoding-prefix. If one string-literal has no encoding-prefix, it is treated as a string-literal of the same encoding-prefix as the other operand. If a UTF-8 string literal token is adjacent to a wide string literal token, the program is ill-formed. Any other concatenations are conditionally-supported with implementation-defined behavior. [ Note: This concatenation is an interpretation, not a conversion. Because the interpretation happens in translation phase 6 (after each character from a string literal has been translated into a value from the appropriate character set), a string-literal's initial rawness has no effect on the interpretation or well-formedness of the concatenation.  — end note ] Table 9 has some examples of valid concatenations.

Characters in concatenated strings are kept distinct.

[ Example:

"\xA" "B"

contains the two characters '\xA' and 'B' after concatenation (and not the single hexadecimal character '\xAB').  — end example ]

After any necessary concatenation, in translation phase 7, '\0' is appended to every string literal so that programs that scan a string can find its end.

Escape sequences and universal-character-names in non-raw string literals have the same meaning as in character literals, except that the single quote ' is representable either by itself or by the escape sequence \', and the double quote " shall be preceded by a \, and except that a universal-character-name in a char16_­t string literal may yield a surrogate pair. In a narrow string literal, a universal-character-name may map to more than one char element due to multibyte encoding. The size of a char32_­t or wide string literal is the total number of escape sequences, universal-character-names, and other characters, plus one for the terminating U'\0' or L'\0'. The size of a char16_­t string literal is the total number of escape sequences, universal-character-names, and other characters, plus one for each character requiring a surrogate pair, plus one for the terminating u'\0'. [ Note: The size of a char16_­t string literal is the number of code units, not the number of characters.  — end note ] Within char32_­t and char16_­t string literals, any universal-character-names shall be within the range 0x0 to 0x10FFFF. The size of a narrow string literal is the total number of escape sequences and other characters, plus at least one for the multibyte encoding of each universal-character-name, plus one for the terminating '\0'.

Evaluating a string-literal results in a string literal object with static storage duration, initialized from the given characters as specified above. Whether all string literals are distinct (that is, are stored in nonoverlapping objects) and whether successive evaluations of a string-literal yield the same or a different object is unspecified. [ Note: The effect of attempting to modify a string literal is undefined.  — end note ]

The Boolean literals are the keywords false and true. Such literals are prvalues and have type bool.

The pointer literal is the keyword nullptr. It is a prvalue of type std​::​nullptr_­t. [ Note: std​::​nullptr_­t is a distinct type that is neither a pointer type nor a pointer to member type; rather, a prvalue of this type is a null pointer constant and can be converted to a null pointer value or null member pointer value. See [conv.ptr] and [conv.mem].  — end note ]

If a token matches both user-defined-literal and another literal kind, it is treated as the latter. [ Example: 123_­km is a user-defined-literal, but 12LL is an integer-literal.  — end example ] The syntactic non-terminal preceding the ud-suffix in a user-defined-literal is taken to be the longest sequence of characters that could match that non-terminal.

A user-defined-literal is treated as a call to a literal operator or literal operator template. To determine the form of this call for a given user-defined-literal L with ud-suffix X, the literal-operator-id whose literal suffix identifier is X is looked up in the context of L using the rules for unqualified name lookup. Let S be the set of declarations found by this lookup. S shall not be empty.

If L is a user-defined-integer-literal, let n be the literal without its ud-suffix. If S contains a literal operator with parameter type unsigned long long, the literal L is treated as a call of the form

operator "" X(nULL)

Otherwise, S shall contain a raw literal operator or a literal operator template but not both. If S contains a raw literal operator, the literal L is treated as a call of the form

operator "" X("n")

Otherwise (S contains a literal operator template), L is treated as a call of the form

operator "" X<'$c_1$', '$c_2$', ... '$c_k$'>()

where n is the source character sequence $c_1{c}_2...c_k$. [ Note: The sequence $c_1{c}_2...c_k$ can only contain characters from the basic source character set.  — end note ]

If L is a user-defined-floating-literal, let f be the literal without its ud-suffix. If S contains a literal operator with parameter type long double, the literal L is treated as a call of the form

operator "" X(fL)

Otherwise, S shall contain a raw literal operator or a literal operator template but not both. If S contains a raw literal operator, the literal L is treated as a call of the form

operator "" X("f")

Otherwise (S contains a literal operator template), L is treated as a call of the form

operator "" X<'$c_1$', '$c_2$', ... '$c_k$'>()

where f is the source character sequence $c_1{c}_2...c_k$. [ Note: The sequence $c_1{c}_2...c_k$ can only contain characters from the basic source character set.  — end note ]

If L is a user-defined-string-literal, let str be the literal without its ud-suffix and let len be the number of code units in str (i.e., its length excluding the terminating null character). The literal L is treated as a call of the form

operator "" X(str, len)

If L is a user-defined-character-literal, let ch be the literal without its ud-suffix. S shall contain a literal operator whose only parameter has the type of ch and the literal L is treated as a call of the form

operator "" X(ch)

[ Example:

long double operator "" _w(long double);
std::string operator "" _w(const char16_t*, std::size_t);
unsigned operator "" _w(const char*);
int main() {
  1.2_w;      // calls operator "" _­w(1.2L)
  u"one"_w;   // calls operator "" _­w(u"one", 3)
  12_w;       // calls operator "" _­w("12")
  "two"_w;    // error: no applicable literal operator
}

 — end example ]

In translation phase 6, adjacent string literals are concatenated and user-defined-string-literals are considered string literals for that purpose. During concatenation, ud-suffixes are removed and ignored and the concatenation process occurs as described in [lex.string]. At the end of phase 6, if a string literal is the result of a concatenation involving at least one user-defined-string-literal, all the participating user-defined-string-literals shall have the same ud-suffix and that suffix is applied to the result of the concatenation.

[ Example:

int main() {
  L"A" "B" "C"_x; // OK: same as L"ABC"_­x
  "P"_x "Q" "R"_y;// error: two different ud-suffixes
}

 — end example ]