5 Lexical conventions [lex]

5.1 Separate translation [lex.separate]

The text of the program is kept in units called source files in this document.

A source file together with all the headers and source files included via the preprocessing directive #include, less any source lines skipped by any of the conditional inclusion ([cpp.cond]) preprocessing directives, as modified by the implementation-defined behavior of any conditionally-supported-directives ([cpp.pre]) and pragmas ([cpp.pragma]), if any, is called a preprocessing translation unit.

[Note 1:

A C++ program need not all be translated at the same time.

— end note]

[Note 2:

Previously translated translation units and instantiation units can be preserved individually or in libraries.

The separate translation units of a program communicate ([basic.link]) by (for example) calls to functions whose identifiers have external or module linkage, manipulation of objects whose identifiers have external or module linkage, or manipulation of data files.

Translation units can be separately translated and then later linked to produce an executable program.

— end note]

5.2 Phases of translation [lex.phases]

The precedence among the syntax rules of translation is specified by the following phases.7

1.	An implementation shall support input files that are a sequence of UTF-8 code units (UTF-8 files). It may also support an implementation-defined set of other kinds of input files, and, if so, the kind of an input file is determined in an implementation-defined manner that includes a means of designating input files as UTF-8 files, independent of their content. [Note 1: In other words, recognizing the U+feff byte order mark is not sufficient. — end note] If an input file is determined to be a UTF-8 file, then it shall be a well-formed UTF-8 code unit sequence and it is decoded to produce a sequence of Unicode8 scalar values. A sequence of translation character set elements ([lex.charset]) is then formed by mapping each Unicode scalar value to the corresponding translation character set element. In the resulting sequence, each pair of characters in the input sequence consisting of U+000d carriage return followed by U+000a line feed, as well as each U+000d carriage return not immediately followed by a U+000a line feed, is replaced by a single new-line character. For any other kind of input file supported by the implementation, characters are mapped, in an implementation-defined manner, to a sequence of translation character set elements, representing end-of-line indicators as new-line characters.
2.	If the first translation character is U+feff byte order mark, it is deleted. Each sequence of a backslash character (\) immediately followed by zero or more whitespace characters other than new-line followed by a new-line character is deleted, splicing physical source lines to form logical source lines. Only the last backslash on any physical source line shall be eligible for being part of such a splice. [Note 2: Line splicing can form a universal-character-name ([lex.charset]). — end note] A source file that is not empty and that (after splicing) does not end in a new-line character shall be processed as if an additional new-line character were appended to the file.
3.	The source file is decomposed into preprocessing tokens ([lex.pptoken]) and sequences of whitespace characters (including comments). A source file shall not end in a partial preprocessing token or in a partial comment.9 Each comment ([lex.comment]) is replaced by one space character. New-line characters are retained. Whether each nonempty sequence of whitespace characters other than new-line is retained or replaced by one space character is unspecified. As characters from the source file are consumed to form the next preprocessing token (i.e., not being consumed as part of a comment or other forms of whitespace), except when matching a c-char-sequence, s-char-sequence, r-char-sequence, h-char-sequence, or q-char-sequence, universal-character-names are recognized ([lex.universal.char]) and replaced by the designated element of the translation character set ([lex.charset]). The process of dividing a source file's characters into preprocessing tokens is context-dependent. [Example 1: See the handling of < within a #include preprocessing directive ([lex.header], [cpp.include]). — end example]
4.	The source file is analyzed as a preprocessing-file ([cpp.pre]). Preprocessing directives ([cpp]) are executed, macro invocations are expanded ([cpp.replace]), and _Pragma unary operator expressions are executed ([cpp.pragma.op]). A #include preprocessing directive ([cpp.include]) causes the named header or source file to be processed from phase 1 through phase 4, recursively. All preprocessing directives are then deleted.
5.	For a sequence of two or more adjacent string-literal preprocessing tokens, a common encoding-prefix is determined as specified in [lex.string]. Each such string-literal preprocessing token is then considered to have that common encoding-prefix.
6.	Adjacent string-literal preprocessing tokens are concatenated ([lex.string]).
7.	Each preprocessing token is converted into a token ([lex.token]). Whitespace characters separating tokens are no longer significant. The resulting tokens constitute a translation unit and are syntactically and semantically analyzed as a translation-unit ([basic.link]) and translated. [Note 3: The process of analyzing and translating the tokens can occasionally result in one token being replaced by a sequence of other tokens ([temp.names]). — end note] It is implementation-defined whether the sources for module units and header units on which the current translation unit has an interface dependency ([module.unit], [module.import]) are required to be available. [Note 4: Source files, translation units and translated translation units need not necessarily be stored as files, nor need there be any one-to-one correspondence between these entities and any external representation. The description is conceptual only, and does not specify any particular implementation. — end note]
8.	Translated translation units and instantiation units are combined as follows: [Note 5: Some or all of these can be supplied from a library. — end note] Each translated translation unit is examined to produce a list of required instantiations. [Note 6: This can include instantiations which have been explicitly requested ([temp.explicit]). — end note] The definitions of the required templates are located. It is implementation-defined whether the source of the translation units containing these definitions is required to be available. [Note 7: An implementation can choose to encode sufficient information into the translated translation unit so as to ensure the source is not required here. — end note] All the required instantiations are performed to produce instantiation units. [Note 8: These are similar to translated translation units, but contain no references to uninstantiated templates and no template definitions. — end note] The program is ill-formed if any instantiation fails.
9.	All external entity references are resolved. Library components are linked to satisfy external references to entities not defined in the current translation. All such translator output is collected into a program image which contains information needed for execution in its execution environment.

7)7)

Implementations behave as if these separate phases occur, although in practice different phases can be folded together.

8)8)

Unicode® is a registered trademark of Unicode, Inc.

This information is given for the convenience of users of this document and does not constitute an endorsement by ISO or IEC of this product.

9)9)

A partial preprocessing token would arise from a source file ending in the first portion of a multi-character token that requires a terminating sequence of characters, such as a header-name that is missing the closing " or >.

A partial comment would arise from a source file ending with an unclosed /* comment.

5.3 Characters [lex.char]

5.3.1 Character sets [lex.charset]

The translation character set consists of the following elements:

(1.1)
each abstract character assigned a code point in the Unicode codespace as specified in the Unicode Standard, and
(1.2)
a distinct character for each Unicode scalar value not assigned to an abstract character.

[Note 1:

Unicode code points are integers in the range [0, 10FFFF] (hexadecimal).

A surrogate code point is a value in the range [D800, DFFF] (hexadecimal).

A Unicode scalar value is any code point that is not a surrogate code point.

— end note]

The basic character set is a subset of the translation character set, consisting of 99 characters as specified in Table 1 .

[Note 2:

Unicode short names are given only as a means to identifying the character; the numerical value has no other meaning in this context.

— end note]

Table 1 — Basic character set [tab:lex.charset.basic]

🔗 character		glyph
🔗 U+0009	character tabulation
🔗 U+000b	line tabulation
🔗 U+000c	form feed
🔗 U+0020	space
🔗 U+000a	line feed	new-line
🔗 U+0021	exclamation mark	!
🔗 U+0022	quotation mark	"
🔗 U+0023	number sign	#
🔗 U+0024	dollar sign	$
🔗 U+0025	percent sign	%
🔗 U+0026	ampersand	&
🔗 U+0027	apostrophe	'
🔗 U+0028	left parenthesis	(
🔗 U+0029	right parenthesis	)
🔗 U+002a	asterisk	*
🔗 U+002b	plus sign	+
🔗 U+002c	comma	,
🔗 U+002d	hyphen-minus	-
🔗 U+002e	full stop	.
🔗 U+002f	solidus	/
🔗 U+0030 .. U+0039	digit zero .. nine	0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
🔗 U+003a	colon	:
🔗 U+003b	semicolon	;
🔗 U+003c	less-than sign	<
🔗 U+003d	equals sign	=
🔗 U+003e	greater-than sign	>
🔗 U+003f	question mark	?
🔗 U+0040	commercial at	@
🔗 U+0041 .. U+005a	latin capital letter a .. z	A B C D E F G H I J K L M
🔗		N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
🔗 U+005b	left square bracket	[
🔗 U+005c	reverse solidus	\
🔗 U+005d	right square bracket	]
🔗 U+005e	circumflex accent	^
🔗 U+005f	low line	_
🔗 U+0060	grave accent	`
🔗 U+0061 .. U+007a	latin small letter a .. z	a b c d e f g h i j k l m
🔗		n o p q r s t u v w x y z
🔗 U+007b	left curly bracket	{
🔗 U+007c	vertical line	\|
🔗 U+007d	right curly bracket	}
🔗 U+007e	tilde	~

The basic literal character set consists of all characters of the basic character set, plus the control characters specified in Table 2 .

Table 2 — Additional control characters in the basic literal character set [tab:lex.charset.literal]

🔗 character
🔗 U+0000	null
🔗 U+0007	alert
🔗 U+0008	backspace
🔗 U+000d	carriage return

A code unit is an integer value of character type ([basic.fundamental]).

Characters in a character-literal other than a multicharacter or non-encodable character literal or in a string-literal are encoded as a sequence of one or more code units, as determined by the encoding-prefix ([lex.ccon], [lex.string]); this is termed the respective literal encoding.

The ordinary literal encoding is the encoding applied to an ordinary character or string literal.

The wide literal encoding is the encoding applied to a wide character or string literal.

A literal encoding or a locale-specific encoding of one of the execution character sets ([character.seq]) encodes each element of the basic literal character set as a single code unit with non-negative value, distinct from the code unit for any other such element.

[Note 3:

A character not in the basic literal character set can be encoded with more than one code unit; the value of such a code unit can be the same as that of a code unit for an element of the basic literal character set.

— end note]

The U+0000 null character is encoded as the value 0.

No other element of the translation character set is encoded with a code unit of value 0.

The code unit value of each decimal digit character after the digit 0 (U+0030) shall be one greater than the value of the previous.

The ordinary and wide literal encodings are otherwise implementation-defined.

For a UTF-8, UTF-16, or UTF-32 literal, the implementation shall encode the Unicode scalar value corresponding to each character of the translation character set as specified in the Unicode Standard for the respective Unicode encoding form.

5.3.2 Universal character names [lex.universal.char]

n-char:
any member of the translation character set except the U+007d right curly bracket or new-line character

n-char-sequence:
n-char n-char-sequence

_{o p t}

named-universal-character:
\N{ n-char-sequence }

hex-quad:
hexadecimal-digit hexadecimal-digit hexadecimal-digit hexadecimal-digit

simple-hexadecimal-digit-sequence:
hexadecimal-digit simple-hexadecimal-digit-sequence

_{o p t}

universal-character-name:
\u hex-quad
\U hex-quad hex-quad
\u{ simple-hexadecimal-digit-sequence }
named-universal-character

The universal-character-name construct provides a way to name any element in the translation character set using just the basic character set.

If a universal-character-name outside the c-char-sequence, s-char-sequence, or r-char-sequence of a character-literal or string-literal (in either case, including within a user-defined-literal) corresponds to a control character or to a character in the basic character set, the program is ill-formed.

[Note 1:

A sequence of characters resembling a universal-character-name in an r-char-sequence ([lex.string]) does not form a universal-character-name.

— end note]

A universal-character-name of the form \u hex-quad, \U hex-quad hex-quad, or \u{simple-hexadecimal-digit-sequence} designates the character in the translation character set whose Unicode scalar value is the hexadecimal number represented by the sequence of hexadecimal-digits in the universal-character-name.

The program is ill-formed if that number is not a Unicode scalar value.

A universal-character-name that is a named-universal-character designates the corresponding character in the Unicode Standard (chapter 4.8 Name) if the n-char-sequence is equal to its character name or to one of its character name aliases of type “control”, “correction”, or “alternate”; otherwise, the program is ill-formed.

[Note 2:

These aliases are listed in the Unicode Character Database's NameAliases.txt.

None of these names or aliases have leading or trailing spaces.

— end note]

5.4 Comments [lex.comment]

The characters /* start a comment, which terminates with the characters */.

These comments do not nest.

The characters // start a comment, which terminates immediately before the next new-line character.

If there is a form-feed or a vertical-tab character in such a comment, only whitespace characters shall appear between it and the new-line that terminates the comment; no diagnostic is required.

[Note 1:

The comment characters //, /*, and */ have no special meaning within a // comment and are treated just like other characters.

Similarly, the comment characters // and /* have no special meaning within a /* comment.

— end note]

5.5 Preprocessing tokens [lex.pptoken]

preprocessing-token:
header-name
import-keyword
module-keyword
export-keyword
identifier
pp-number
character-literal
user-defined-character-literal
string-literal
user-defined-string-literal
preprocessing-op-or-punc
each non-whitespace character that cannot be one of the above

A preprocessing token is the minimal lexical element of the language in translation phases 3 through 6.

In this document, glyphs are used to identify elements of the basic character set ([lex.charset]).

The categories of preprocessing token are: header names, placeholder tokens produced by preprocessing import and module directives (import-keyword, module-keyword, and export-keyword), identifiers, preprocessing numbers, character literals (including user-defined character literals), string literals (including user-defined string literals), preprocessing operators and punctuators, and single non-whitespace characters that do not lexically match the other preprocessing token categories.

If a U+0027 apostrophe or a U+0022 quotation mark character matches the last category, the program is ill-formed.

If any character not in the basic character set matches the last category, the program is ill-formed.

Preprocessing tokens can be separated by whitespace; this consists of comments ([lex.comment]), or whitespace characters (U+0020 space, U+0009 character tabulation, new-line, U+000b line tabulation, and U+000c form feed), or both.

As described in [cpp], in certain circumstances during translation phase 4, whitespace (or the absence thereof) serves as more than preprocessing token separation.

Whitespace can appear within a preprocessing token only as part of a header name or between the quotation characters in a character literal or string literal.

Each preprocessing token that is converted to a token ([lex.token]) shall have the lexical form of a keyword, an identifier, a literal, or an operator or punctuator.

The import-keyword is produced by processing an import directive ([cpp.import]), the module-keyword is produced by preprocessing a module directive ([cpp.module]), and the export-keyword is produced by preprocessing either of the previous two directives.

[Note 1:

None has any observable spelling.

— end note]

If the input stream has been parsed into preprocessing tokens up to a given character:

(4.1)
If the next character begins a sequence of characters that could be the prefix and initial double quote of a raw string literal, such as R", the next preprocessing token shall be a raw string literal.

Between the initial and final double quote characters of the raw string, any transformations performed in phase 2 (line splicing) are reverted; this reversion shall apply before any d-char, r-char, or delimiting parenthesis is identified.

The raw string literal is defined as the shortest sequence of characters that matches the raw-string pattern
encoding-prefix $_{o p t}$ R raw-string
(4.2)
Otherwise, if the next three characters are <:: and the subsequent character is neither : nor >, the < is treated as a preprocessing token by itself and not as the first character of the alternative token <:.
(4.3)
Otherwise, the next preprocessing token is the longest sequence of characters that could constitute a preprocessing token, even if that would cause further lexical analysis to fail, except that a header-name ([lex.header]) is only formed
- (4.3.1)
  after the include or import preprocessing token in a #include ([cpp.include]) or import ([cpp.import]) directive, or
- (4.3.2)
  within a has-include-expression.

[Example 1: #define R "x" const char* s = R"y"; // ill-formed raw string, not "x" "y" — end example]

[Example 2:

The program fragment 0xe+foo is parsed as a preprocessing number token (one that is not a valid integer-literal or floating-point-literal token), even though a parse as three preprocessing tokens 0xe, +, and foo can produce a valid expression (for example, if foo is a macro defined as 1).

Similarly, the program fragment 1E1 is parsed as a preprocessing number (one that is a valid floating-point-literal token), whether or not E is a macro name.

— end example]

[Example 3:

The program fragment x+++++y is parsed as x ++ ++ + y, which, if x and y have integral types, violates a constraint on increment operators, even though the parse x ++ + ++ y can yield a correct expression.

— end example]

5.6 Header names [lex.header]

header-name:
< h-char-sequence >
" q-char-sequence "

h-char-sequence:
h-char h-char-sequence

_{o p t}

h-char:
any member of the translation character set except new-line and U+003e greater-than sign

q-char-sequence:
q-char q-char-sequence

_{o p t}

q-char:
any member of the translation character set except new-line and U+0022 quotation mark

The sequences in both forms of header-names are mapped in an implementation-defined manner to headers or to external source file names as specified in [cpp.include].

[Note 1:

Header name preprocessing tokens appear only within a #include preprocessing directive, a __has_include preprocessing expression, or after certain occurrences of an import token (see [lex.pptoken]).

— end note]

The appearance of either of the characters ' or \ or of either of the character sequences /* or // in a q-char-sequence or an h-char-sequence is conditionally-supported with implementation-defined semantics, as is the appearance of the character " in an h-char-sequence.

[Note 2:

Thus, a sequence of characters that resembles an escape sequence can result in an error, be interpreted as the character corresponding to the escape sequence, or have a completely different meaning, depending on the implementation.

— end note]

5.7 Preprocessing numbers [lex.ppnumber]

pp-number:
digit
. digit
pp-number identifier-continue
pp-number ' digit
pp-number ' nondigit
pp-number e sign
pp-number E sign
pp-number p sign
pp-number P sign
pp-number .

Preprocessing number tokens lexically include all integer-literal tokens ([lex.icon]) and all floating-point-literal tokens ([lex.fcon]).

A preprocessing number does not have a type or a value; it acquires both after a successful conversion to an integer-literal token or a floating-point-literal token.

5.8 Operators and punctuators [lex.operators]

The lexical representation of C++ programs includes a number of preprocessing tokens that are used in the syntax of the preprocessor or are converted into tokens for operators and punctuators:

preprocessing-op-or-punc:
preprocessing-operator
operator-or-punctuator

preprocessing-operator: one of
# ## %: %:%:

operator-or-punctuator: one of
{        }        [        ]        (        )
<%       %>       <:       :>       ;        :        ...
?        ::       .        .*       ->       ->*      ~
!        +        -        *        /        %        ^        &        |
=        +=       -=       *=       /=       %=       ^=       &=       |=
==       !=       <        >        <=       >=       <=>      &&       ||
<<       >>       <<=      >>=      ++       --       ,
and      or       xor      not      bitand   bitor    compl
and_eq   or_eq    xor_eq   not_eq

Each operator-or-punctuator is converted to a single token in translation phase 7 ([lex.phases]).

5.9 Alternative tokens [lex.digraph]

Alternative token representations are provided for some operators and punctuators.10

In all respects of the language, each alternative token behaves the same, respectively, as its primary token, except for its spelling.11

The set of alternative tokens is defined in Table 3 .

Table 3 — Alternative tokens [tab:lex.digraph]

🔗 Alternative	Primary	Alternative	Primary	Alternative	Primary
🔗 <%	{	and	&&	and_eq	&=
🔗 %>	}	bitor	\|	or_eq	\|=
🔗 <:	[	or	\|\|	xor_eq	^=
🔗 :>	]	xor	^	not	!
🔗 %:	#	compl	~	not_eq	!=
🔗 %:%:	##	bitand	&

10)10)

These include “digraphs” and additional reserved words.

The term “digraph” (token consisting of two characters) is not perfectly descriptive, since one of the alternative preprocessing-tokens is %:%: and of course several primary tokens contain two characters.

Nonetheless, those alternative tokens that aren't lexical keywords are colloquially known as “digraphs”.

11)11)

Thus the “stringized” values ([cpp.stringize]) of [ and <: will be different, maintaining the source spelling, but the tokens can otherwise be freely interchanged.

5.10 Tokens [lex.token]

token:
identifier
keyword
literal
operator-or-punctuator

There are five kinds of tokens: identifiers, keywords, literals,12 operators, and other separators.

Blanks, horizontal and vertical tabs, newlines, formfeeds, and comments (collectively, “whitespace”), as described below, are ignored except as they serve to separate tokens.

[Note 1:

Whitespace can separate otherwise adjacent identifiers, keywords, numeric literals, and alternative tokens containing alphabetic characters.

— end note]

12)12)

Literals include strings and character and numeric literals.

5.11 Identifiers [lex.name]

identifier:
identifier-start
identifier identifier-continue

identifier-start:
nondigit
an element of the translation character set with the Unicode property XID_Start

identifier-continue:
digit
nondigit
an element of the translation character set with the Unicode property XID_Continue

nondigit: one of
a b c d e f g h i j k l m
n o p q r s t u v w x y z
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z _

digit: one of
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

[Note 1:

The character properties XID_Start and XID_Continue are described by UAX #44 of the Unicode Standard.13

— end note]

The program is ill-formed if an identifier does not conform to Normalization Form C as specified in the Unicode Standard.

[Note 2:

Identifiers are case-sensitive.

— end note]

[Note 3:

[uaxid] compares the requirements of UAX #31 of the Unicode Standard with the C++ rules for identifiers.

— end note]

[Note 4:

In translation phase 4, identifier also includes those preprocessing-tokens ([lex.pptoken]) differentiated as keywords ([lex.key]) in the later translation phase 7 ([lex.token]).

— end note]

The identifiers in Table 4 have a special meaning when appearing in a certain context.

When referred to in the grammar, these identifiers are used explicitly rather than using the identifier grammar production.

Unless otherwise specified, any ambiguity as to whether a given identifier has a special meaning is resolved to interpret the token as a regular identifier.

Table 4 — Identifiers with special meaning [tab:lex.name.special]

🔗 final	import	post	replaceable_if_eligible
🔗 override	module	pre	trivially_relocatable_if_eligible

In addition, some identifiers appearing as a token or preprocessing-token are reserved for use by C++ implementations and shall not be used otherwise; no diagnostic is required.

(3.1)
Each identifier that contains a double underscore __ or begins with an underscore followed by an uppercase letter, other than those specified in this document (for example, __cplusplus ([cpp.predefined])), is reserved to the implementation for any use.
(3.2)
Each identifier that begins with an underscore is reserved to the implementation for use as a name in the global namespace.

13)13)

On systems in which linkers cannot accept extended characters, an encoding of the universal-character-name can be used in forming valid external identifiers.

For example, some otherwise unused character or sequence of characters can be used to encode the \u in a universal-character-name.

Extended characters can produce a long external identifier, but C++ does not place a translation limit on significant characters for external identifiers.

5.12 Keywords [lex.key]

keyword:
any identifier listed in Table 5
import-keyword
module-keyword
export-keyword

The identifiers shown in Table 5 are reserved for use as keywords (that is, they are unconditionally treated as keywords in phase 7) except in an attribute-token ([dcl.attr.grammar]).

[Note 1:

The register keyword is unused but is reserved for future use.

— end note]

Table 5 — Keywords [tab:lex.key]

🔗 alignas	constinit	extern	protected	throw
🔗 alignof	const_cast	false	public	true
🔗 asm	continue	float	register	try
🔗 auto	contract_assert	for	reinterpret_cast	typedef
🔗 bool	co_await	friend	requires	typeid
🔗 break	co_return	goto	return	typename
🔗 case	co_yield	if	short	union
🔗 catch	decltype	inline	signed	unsigned
🔗 char	default	int	sizeof	using
🔗 char8_t	delete	long	static	virtual
🔗 char16_t	do	mutable	static_assert	void
🔗 char32_t	double	namespace	static_cast	volatile
🔗 class	dynamic_cast	new	struct	wchar_t
🔗 concept	else	noexcept	switch	while
🔗 const	enum	nullptr	template
🔗 consteval	explicit	operator	this
🔗 constexpr	export	private	thread_local

Furthermore, the alternative representations shown in Table 6 for certain operators and punctuators ([lex.digraph]) are reserved and shall not be used otherwise.

Table 6 — Alternative representations [tab:lex.key.digraph]

🔗 and	and_eq	bitand	bitor	compl	not
🔗 not_eq	or	or_eq	xor	xor_eq

5.13 Literals [lex.literal]

5.13.1 Kinds of literals [lex.literal.kinds]

There are several kinds of literals.14

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

[Note 1:

When appearing as an expression, a literal has a type and a value category ([expr.prim.literal]).

— end note]

14)14)

The term “literal” generally designates, in this document, those tokens that are called “constants” in C.

5.13.2 Integer literals [lex.icon]

integer-literal:
binary-literal integer-suffix

_{o p t}

octal-literal integer-suffix

_{o p t}

decimal-literal integer-suffix

_{o p t}

hexadecimal-literal integer-suffix

_{o p t}

binary-literal:
0b binary-digit
0B binary-digit
binary-literal '

_{o p t}

binary-digit

octal-literal:
0
octal-literal '

_{o p t}

octal-digit

decimal-literal:
nonzero-digit
decimal-literal '

_{o p t}

digit

hexadecimal-literal:
hexadecimal-prefix hexadecimal-digit-sequence

binary-digit: one of
0 1

octal-digit: one of
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

nonzero-digit: one of
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

hexadecimal-prefix: one of
0x 0X

hexadecimal-digit-sequence:
hexadecimal-digit
hexadecimal-digit-sequence '

_{o p t}

hexadecimal-digit

hexadecimal-digit: one of
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
a b c d e f
A B C D E F

integer-suffix:
unsigned-suffix long-suffix

_{o p t}

unsigned-suffix long-long-suffix

_{o p t}

unsigned-suffix size-suffix

_{o p t}

long-suffix unsigned-suffix

_{o p t}

long-long-suffix unsigned-suffix

_{o p t}

size-suffix unsigned-suffix

_{o p t}

unsigned-suffix: one of
u U

long-suffix: one of
l L

long-long-suffix: one of
ll LL

size-suffix: one of
z Z

In an integer-literal, the sequence of binary-digits, octal-digits, digits, or hexadecimal-digits is interpreted as a base N integer as shown in Table 7; the lexically first digit of the sequence of digits is the most significant.

[Note 1:

The prefix and any optional separating single quotes are ignored when determining the value.

— end note]

Table 7 — Base of integer-literals [tab:lex.icon.base]

🔗 Kind of integer-literal	base N
🔗 binary-literal	2
🔗 octal-literal	8
🔗 decimal-literal	10
🔗 hexadecimal-literal	16

The hexadecimal-digits a through f and A through F have decimal values ten through fifteen.

[Example 1:

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 type in the list in Table 8 corresponding to its optional integer-suffix in which its value can be represented.

Table 8 — Types of integer-literals [tab:lex.icon.type]

🔗 *integer-suffix*	*decimal-literal*	**integer-literal other than decimal-literal**
🔗 none	int	int
🔗	long int	unsigned int
🔗	long long int	long int
🔗		unsigned long int
🔗		long long int
🔗		unsigned long long int
🔗 u or U	unsigned int	unsigned int
🔗	unsigned long int	unsigned long int
🔗	unsigned long long int	unsigned long long int
🔗 l or L	long int	long int
🔗	long long int	unsigned long int
🔗		long long int
🔗		unsigned long long int
🔗 Both u or U	unsigned long int	unsigned long int
🔗 and l or L	unsigned long long int	unsigned long long int
🔗 ll or LL	long long int	long long int
🔗		unsigned long long int
🔗 Both u or U	unsigned long long int	unsigned long long int
🔗 and ll or LL
🔗 z or Z	the signed integer type corresponding	the signed integer type
🔗	to std::size_t ([support.types.layout])	corresponding to std::size_t
🔗		std::size_t
🔗 Both u or U	std::size_t	std::size_t
🔗 and z or Z

Except for integer-literals containing a size-suffix, if the value of an integer-literal cannot be represented by any type in its list and an extended integer type ([basic.fundamental]) 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 is signed.

If all of the types in the list for the integer-literal are unsigned, the extended integer type is unsigned.

If the list contains both signed and unsigned types, the extended integer type may be signed or unsigned.

If an integer-literal cannot be represented by any of the allowed types, the program is ill-formed.

[Note 2:

An integer-literal with a z or Z suffix is ill-formed if it cannot be represented by std::size_t.

— end note]

5.13.3 Character literals [lex.ccon]

character-literal:
encoding-prefix

_{o p t}

' c-char-sequence '

encoding-prefix: one of
u8 u U L

c-char-sequence:
c-char c-char-sequence

_{o p t}

c-char:
basic-c-char
escape-sequence
universal-character-name

basic-c-char:
any member of the translation character set except the U+0027 apostrophe,
U+005c reverse solidus, or new-line character

escape-sequence:
simple-escape-sequence
numeric-escape-sequence
conditional-escape-sequence

simple-escape-sequence:
\ simple-escape-sequence-char

simple-escape-sequence-char: one of
' " ? \ a b f n r t v

numeric-escape-sequence:
octal-escape-sequence
hexadecimal-escape-sequence

simple-octal-digit-sequence:
octal-digit simple-octal-digit-sequence

_{o p t}

octal-escape-sequence:
\ octal-digit
\ octal-digit octal-digit
\ octal-digit octal-digit octal-digit
\o{ simple-octal-digit-sequence }

hexadecimal-escape-sequence:
\x simple-hexadecimal-digit-sequence
\x{ simple-hexadecimal-digit-sequence }

conditional-escape-sequence:
\ conditional-escape-sequence-char

conditional-escape-sequence-char:
any member of the basic character set that is not an octal-digit, a simple-escape-sequence-char, or the characters N, o, u, U, or x

A multicharacter literal is a character-literal whose c-char-sequence consists of more than one c-char.

A multicharacter literal shall not have an encoding-prefix.

If a multicharacter literal contains a c-char that is not encodable as a single code unit in the ordinary literal encoding, the program is ill-formed.

Multicharacter literals are conditionally-supported.

The kind of a character-literal, its type, and its associated character encoding ([lex.charset]) are determined by its encoding-prefix and its c-char-sequence as defined by Table 9 .

Table 9 — Character literals [tab:lex.ccon.literal]

🔗 Encoding	Kind	Type	Associated char-	Example
🔗 prefix			acter encoding
🔗 none	ordinary character literal	char	ordinary literal	'v'
🔗	multicharacter literal	int	encoding	'abcd'
🔗 L	wide character literal	wchar_t	wide literal	L'w'
🔗			encoding
🔗 u8	UTF-8 character literal	char8_t	UTF-8	u8'x'
🔗 u	UTF-16 character literal	char16_t	UTF-16	u'y'
🔗 U	UTF-32 character literal	char32_t	UTF-32	U'z'

In translation phase 4, the value of a character-literal is determined using the range of representable values of the character-literal's type in translation phase 7.

A multicharacter literal has an implementation-defined value.

The value of any other kind of character-literal is determined as follows:

(3.1)
A character-literal with a c-char-sequence consisting of a single basic-c-char, simple-escape-sequence, or universal-character-name is the code unit value of the specified character as encoded in the literal's associated character encoding.

If the specified character lacks representation in the literal's associated character encoding or if it cannot be encoded as a single code unit, then the program is ill-formed.
(3.2)
A character-literal with a c-char-sequence consisting of a single numeric-escape-sequence has a value as follows:
- (3.2.1)
  Let v be the integer value represented by the octal number comprising the sequence of octal-digits in an octal-escape-sequence or by the hexadecimal number comprising the sequence of hexadecimal-digits in a hexadecimal-escape-sequence.
- (3.2.2)
  If v does not exceed the range of representable values of the character-literal's type, then the value is v.
- (3.2.3)
  Otherwise, if the character-literal's encoding-prefix is absent or L, and v does not exceed the range of representable values of the corresponding unsigned type for the underlying type of the character-literal's type, then the value is the unique value of the character-literal's type T that is congruent to v modulo $2^{N}$ , where N is the width of T.
- (3.2.4)
  Otherwise, the program is ill-formed.
(3.3)
A character-literal with a c-char-sequence consisting of a single conditional-escape-sequence is conditionally-supported and has an implementation-defined value.

The character specified by a simple-escape-sequence is specified in Table 10 .

[Note 1:

Using an escape sequence for a question mark is supported for compatibility with C++ 2014 and C.

— end note]

Table 10 — Simple escape sequences [tab:lex.ccon.esc]

🔗 character		*simple-escape-sequence*
🔗 U+000a	line feed	\n
🔗 U+0009	character tabulation	\t
🔗 U+000b	line tabulation	\v
🔗 U+0008	backspace	\b
🔗 U+000d	carriage return	\r
🔗 U+000c	form feed	\f
🔗 U+0007	alert	\a
🔗 U+005c	reverse solidus	\\
🔗 U+003f	question mark	\?
🔗 U+0027	apostrophe	\'
🔗 U+0022	quotation mark	\"

5.13.4 Floating-point literals [lex.fcon]

floating-point-literal:
decimal-floating-point-literal
hexadecimal-floating-point-literal

decimal-floating-point-literal:
fractional-constant exponent-part

_{o p t}

floating-point-suffix

_{o p t}

digit-sequence exponent-part floating-point-suffix

_{o p t}

hexadecimal-floating-point-literal:
hexadecimal-prefix hexadecimal-fractional-constant binary-exponent-part floating-point-suffix

_{o p t}

hexadecimal-prefix hexadecimal-digit-sequence binary-exponent-part floating-point-suffix

_{o p t}

fractional-constant:
digit-sequence

_{o p t}

. digit-sequence
digit-sequence .

hexadecimal-fractional-constant:
hexadecimal-digit-sequence

_{o p t}

. hexadecimal-digit-sequence
hexadecimal-digit-sequence .

exponent-part:
e sign

_{o p t}

digit-sequence
E sign

_{o p t}

digit-sequence

binary-exponent-part:
p sign

_{o p t}

digit-sequence
P sign

_{o p t}

digit-sequence

sign: one of
+ -

digit-sequence:
digit
digit-sequence '

_{o p t}

digit

floating-point-suffix: one of
f l f16 f32 f64 f128 bf16 F L F16 F32 F64 F128 BF16

The type of a floating-point-literal ([basic.fundamental], [basic.extended.fp]) is determined by its floating-point-suffix as specified in Table 11 .

[Note 1:

The floating-point suffixes f16, f32, f64, f128, bf16, F16, F32, F64, F128, and BF16 are conditionally-supported.

See [basic.extended.fp].

— end note]

Table 11 — Types of floating-point-literals [tab:lex.fcon.type]

🔗 *floating-point-suffix*	type
🔗 none	double
🔗 f or F	float
🔗 l or L	long double
🔗 f16 or F16	std::float16_t
🔗 f32 or F32	std::float32_t
🔗 f64 or F64	std::float64_t
🔗 f128 or F128	std::float128_t
🔗 bf16 or BF16	std::bfloat16_t

The significand of a floating-point-literal is the fractional-constant or digit-sequence of a decimal-floating-point-literal or the hexadecimal-fractional-constant or hexadecimal-digit-sequence of a hexadecimal-floating-point-literal.

In the significand, the sequence of digits or hexadecimal-digits and optional period are interpreted as a base N real number s, where N is 10 for a decimal-floating-point-literal and 16 for a hexadecimal-floating-point-literal.

[Note 2:

Any optional separating single quotes are ignored when determining the value.

— end note]

If an exponent-part or binary-exponent-part is present, the exponent e of the floating-point-literal is the result of interpreting the sequence of an optional sign and the digits as a base 10 integer.

Otherwise, the exponent e is 0.

The scaled value of the literal is

s \times 10^{e}

for a decimal-floating-point-literal and

s \times 2^{e}

for a hexadecimal-floating-point-literal.

[Example 1:

The floating-point-literals 49.625 and 0xC.68p+2 have the same value.

The floating-point-literals 1.602'176'565e-19 and 1.602176565e-19 have the same value.

— end example]

If the scaled value is not in the range of representable values for its type, the program is ill-formed.

Otherwise, the value of a floating-point-literal is the scaled value if representable, else the larger or smaller representable value nearest the scaled value, chosen in an implementation-defined manner.

5.13.5 String literals [lex.string]

string-literal:
encoding-prefix

_{o p t}

" s-char-sequence

_{o p t}

"
encoding-prefix

_{o p t}

R raw-string

s-char-sequence:
s-char s-char-sequence

_{o p t}

s-char:
basic-s-char
escape-sequence
universal-character-name

basic-s-char:
any member of the translation character set except the U+0022 quotation mark,
U+005c reverse solidus, or new-line character

raw-string:
" d-char-sequence

_{o p t}

( r-char-sequence

_{o p t}

) d-char-sequence

_{o p t}

r-char-sequence:
r-char r-char-sequence

_{o p t}

r-char:
any member of the translation character set, except a U+0029 right parenthesis followed by
the initial d-char-sequence (which may be empty) followed by a U+0022 quotation mark

d-char-sequence:
d-char d-char-sequence

_{o p t}

d-char:
any member of the basic character set except:
U+0020 space, U+0028 left parenthesis, U+0029 right parenthesis, U+005c reverse solidus,
U+0009 character tabulation, U+000b line tabulation, U+000c form feed, and new-line

The kind of a string-literal, its type, and its associated character encoding ([lex.charset]) are determined by its encoding prefix and sequence of s-chars or r-chars as defined by Table 12 where n is the number of encoded code units that would result from an evaluation of the string-literal (see below).

Table 12 — String literals [tab:lex.string.literal]

🔗 Enco-	Kind	Type	Associated	Examples
🔗 ding			character
🔗 prefix			encoding
🔗 none	ordinary string literal	array of n const char	ordinary literal encoding	"ordinary string" R"(ordinary raw string)"
🔗 L	wide string literal	array of n const wchar_t	wide literal encoding	L"wide string" LR"w(wide raw string)w"
🔗 u8	UTF-8 string literal	array of n const char8_t	UTF-8	u8"UTF-8 string" u8R"x(UTF-8 raw string)x"
🔗 u	UTF-16 string literal	array of n const char16_t	UTF-16	u"UTF-16 string" uR"y(UTF-16 raw string)y"
🔗 U	UTF-32 string literal	array of n const char32_t	UTF-32	U"UTF-32 string" UR"z(UTF-32 raw string)z"

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 1:

The characters '(' and ')' can appear in a raw-string.

Thus, R"delimiter((a|b))delimiter" is equivalent to "(a|b)".

— end note]

[Note 2:

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 1:

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

The raw string R"(x = "\"y\"")" is equivalent to "x = \"\\\"y\\\"\"".

— end example]

Ordinary string literals and UTF-8 string literals are also referred to as narrow string literals.

The string-literals in any sequence of adjacent string-literals shall have at most one unique encoding-prefix among them.

The common encoding-prefix of the sequence is that encoding-prefix, if any.

[Note 3:

A string-literal's rawness has no effect on the determination of the common encoding-prefix.

— end note]

In translation phase 6 ([lex.phases]), adjacent string-literals are concatenated.

The lexical structure and grouping of the contents of the individual string-literals is retained.

[Example 2:

"\xA" "B" represents the code unit '\xA' and the character 'B' after concatenation (and not the single code unit '\xAB').

Similarly, R"(\u00)" "41" represents six characters, starting with a backslash and ending with the digit 1 (and not the single character 'A' specified by a universal-character-name).

Table 13 has some examples of valid concatenations.

— end example]

Table 13 — String literal concatenations [tab:lex.string.concat]

🔗 Source		Means	Source		Means	Source		Means
🔗 u"a"	u"b"	u"ab"	U"a"	U"b"	U"ab"	L"a"	L"b"	L"ab"
🔗 u"a"	"b"	u"ab"	U"a"	"b"	U"ab"	L"a"	"b"	L"ab"
🔗 "a"	u"b"	u"ab"	"a"	U"b"	U"ab"	"a"	L"b"	L"ab"

Evaluating a string-literal results in a string literal object with static storage duration ([basic.stc]).

[Note 4:

String literal objects are potentially non-unique ([intro.object]).

Whether successive evaluations of a string-literal yield the same or a different object is unspecified.

— end note]

[Note 5:

The effect of attempting to modify a string literal object is undefined.

— end note]

String literal objects are initialized with the sequence of code unit values corresponding to the string-literal's sequence of s-chars (originally from non-raw string literals) and r-chars (originally from raw string literals), plus a terminating U+0000 null character, in order as follows:

(10.1)
The sequence of characters denoted by each contiguous sequence of basic-s-chars, r-chars, simple-escape-sequences ([lex.ccon]), and universal-character-names ([lex.charset]) is encoded to a code unit sequence using the string-literal's associated character encoding.

If a character lacks representation in the associated character encoding, then the program is ill-formed.

[Note 6:
No character lacks representation in any Unicode encoding form.
— end note]

When encoding a stateful character encoding, implementations should encode the first such sequence beginning with the initial encoding state and encode subsequent sequences beginning with the final encoding state of the prior sequence.

[Note 7:
The encoded code unit sequence can differ from the sequence of code units that would be obtained by encoding each character independently.
— end note]
(10.2)
Each numeric-escape-sequence ([lex.ccon]) contributes a single code unit with a value as follows:
- (10.2.1)
  Let v be the integer value represented by the octal number comprising the sequence of octal-digits in an octal-escape-sequence or by the hexadecimal number comprising the sequence of hexadecimal-digits in a hexadecimal-escape-sequence.
- (10.2.2)
  If v does not exceed the range of representable values of the string-literal's array element type, then the value is v.
- (10.2.3)
  Otherwise, if the string-literal's encoding-prefix is absent or L, and v does not exceed the range of representable values of the corresponding unsigned type for the underlying type of the string-literal's array element type, then the value is the unique value of the string-literal's array element type T that is congruent to v modulo $2^{N}$ , where N is the width of T.
- (10.2.4)
  Otherwise, the program is ill-formed.
When encoding a stateful character encoding, these sequences should have no effect on encoding state.
(10.3)
Each conditional-escape-sequence ([lex.ccon]) contributes an implementation-defined code unit sequence.

When encoding a stateful character encoding, it is implementation-defined what effect these sequences have on encoding state.

5.13.6 Unevaluated strings [lex.string.uneval]

unevaluated-string:
string-literal

An unevaluated-string shall have no encoding-prefix.

Each universal-character-name and each simple-escape-sequence in an unevaluated-string is replaced by the member of the translation character set it denotes.

An unevaluated-string that contains a numeric-escape-sequence or a conditional-escape-sequence is ill-formed.

An unevaluated-string is never evaluated and its interpretation depends on the context in which it appears.

5.13.7 Boolean literals [lex.bool]

boolean-literal:
false
true

The Boolean literals are the keywords false and true.

Such literals have type bool.

5.13.8 Pointer literals [lex.nullptr]

pointer-literal:
nullptr

The pointer literal is the keyword nullptr.

It has type std::nullptr_t.

[Note 1:

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]

5.13.9 User-defined literals [lex.ext]

user-defined-literal:
user-defined-integer-literal
user-defined-floating-point-literal
user-defined-string-literal
user-defined-character-literal

user-defined-integer-literal:
decimal-literal ud-suffix
octal-literal ud-suffix
hexadecimal-literal ud-suffix
binary-literal ud-suffix

user-defined-floating-point-literal:
fractional-constant exponent-part

_{o p t}

ud-suffix
digit-sequence exponent-part ud-suffix
hexadecimal-prefix hexadecimal-fractional-constant binary-exponent-part ud-suffix
hexadecimal-prefix hexadecimal-digit-sequence binary-exponent-part ud-suffix

user-defined-string-literal:
string-literal ud-suffix

user-defined-character-literal:
character-literal ud-suffix

ud-suffix:
identifier

If a token matches both user-defined-literal and another literal kind, it is treated as the latter.

[Example 1:

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 ([over.literal]).

To determine the form of this call for a given user-defined-literal L with ud-suffix X, first let S be the set of declarations found by unqualified lookup for the literal-operator-id whose literal suffix identifier is X ([basic.lookup.unqual]).

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 numeric literal operator template ([over.literal]) 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 numeric 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 1:

The sequence

c_{1} c_{2} . . . c_{k}

can only contain characters from the basic character set.

— end note]

If L is a user-defined-floating-point-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 numeric literal operator template ([over.literal]) 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 numeric 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 2:

The sequence

c_{1} c_{2} . . . c_{k}

can only contain characters from the basic 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).

If S contains a literal operator template with a constant template parameter for which str is a well-formed template-argument, the literal L is treated as a call of the form operator ""X<str>()

Otherwise, 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 2: 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 ([lex.phases]), 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 3: 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]