Keywords in C++

There are some reserved words in C++ that we cannot use as identifiers. These words have special meaning and perform a predetermined task. We call them keywords in C++.

Keywords in C++

There are 32 keywords in C++, that are also present in C programming Language. These 32 keywords have been listed here.

 

auto	double	int	struct
break	else	long	switch
case	enum	register	typedef
char	extern	return	union
const	float	short	unsigned
continue	for	signed	void
default	goto	sizeof	volatile
do	if	static	while

 

You may read: Break and Continue in C++

Reserved words in C++

Besides these 32 keywords, there are another 30 reserved words in C++ that are not present in C. These keywords are given below.

 

asm	dynamic_cast	namespace	reinterpret_cast	try
bool	explicit	new	static_cast	typeid
catch	false	operator	template	typename
class	friend	private	this	using
const_cast	inline	public	throw	virtual
delete	mutable	protected	true	wchar_t

There are 11 more keywords that are not essential when we are using standard ASCII character set but they provide more readable alternatives for some of the C++ operators. They are also used to facilitate programming with character sets that lack characters needed by C++. These 11 reserved words have been listed here.

 

and	compl	or_eq
and_eq	not	xor
bitand	not_eq	xor_eq
bitor	or

As we have discussed earlier, we cannot use these keywords for identifiers i.e. variables names, function names. If we do so, the compiler will throw an error.

See the code here.

#include <iostream>

int main()
{
  //while is a reserved keyword
  //using while as a variable
  int while=9; 
  //trying to print  value stored in while variable
  std::cout<<while;
  return 0;
  //the compiler will throw an error
}

Output:

Error

Thank you.