What is the variable type of syntax: 'somestring' in Objective-C?

Question

I saw this in Apple's framework files

enum
{
    kAudioFormatLinearPCM               = 'lpcm',
    kAudioFormatAC3                     = 'ac-3'
}

What is the type of 'lpcm'and 'ac-3'?
With a single character in the single quote like this 'a', I know it is a char; With double quotes like this "text", I know it is a string.

But this? This makes me confused.

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:58

4

Well first your in a type enum so it can only represent a int. I think apple using it to create unique vals for the enum but also wants it human readable.

For a much better explanation see: What is the type of an enum whose values appear to be strings?

edited May 23 '17 at 11:58

Community

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answered Aug 21 '11 at 15:49

Adam Magaluk

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"Second single quotes represent a single byte" No, they don't. – sepp2k Aug 21 '11 at 15:50
Thanks, especially for the link:D – Li Fumin Aug 21 '11 at 16:03

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 21 '11 at 16:37

3

Contrary to popular belief the type of 'c' in C is int, not char. When you do something like char c = 'c';, there will be an implicit conversion from int to char, same as if you had written char c = 99;.

So to answer your question: the type of 'abcd' is int, same as the type of 'c'.

edited Aug 21 '11 at 16:37

Bo Persson

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answered Aug 21 '11 at 15:50

sepp2k

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Thanks, seems like it is called integer character constant.Programmming books rarely mention this, it is odd. – Li Fumin Aug 21 '11 at 16:09

What is the variable type of syntax: 'somestring' in Objective-C?

2 Answers2