question about string literal

Dear friends,
Could you please explain what is the difference between "string literal" and "string constant"?
I searched the Web， didn't find consistent description. some said that "string literal" is not constant in fact, but some said that "string literal" is also called "string constant".

Can anyone help me?

Thank you very much!

Code:

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#DEFINE STRING_CONSTANT "String Literal";

char * string_constant = "String Literal";

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In the lines above, a string literal is when I actually have quotes surrounding the literal text. It's when I actually specify the exact string. In my opinion, string constant could mean two things. It could mean the #define statement that I have first. This is usually how constants are done in C. It means that before your code is compiled, every occurence of STRING_CONSTANT will be swapped with the string literal. The second line just puts that string somewhere in the applications memory, and gives me a pointer to it. I can create new pointers to it, etc... but I can't edit the original string because it's hard-coded into the application. That is why this method is also called a string constant.

C++ has a keyword for declaring things as constants ('const'), but this is how it's done in C.

@sean, What you are saying are not *true*.

>>C++ has a keyword for declaring things as constants ('const'), but this is how it's done in C.
C also has...

There's no difference here.

Code:

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// it's #define & no semicolon!
#define STRING_CONSTANT "String Literal"

char * string_constant = "String Literal";

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#define is just a textual replacement....
You cannot modify string literal according to standard. That's why people recommends to use.
const char *s = "string literal"; // compiler will emit error msg if you attempt to modify s content.
// compared to
char *s = "string literal";

Quote:

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@sean, What you are saying are not *true*.

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My apologies, can you point out my mistake?

edit: Ah yes I see - one can actually edit the string when a literal is assigned to a pointer.

> Could you please explain what is the difference between "string literal" and "string constant"?
String literal is standard terminology for a sequence of zero or more characters surrounded by double quotes. String constant is not a term used in the C standard, so it could mean whatever the speaker wants. Most often when both are used, they mean essentially the same thing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Prelude

> Could you please explain what is the difference between "string literal" and "string constant"?
String literal is standard terminology for a sequence of zero or more characters surrounded by double quotes. String constant is not a term used in the C standard, so it could mean whatever the speaker wants. Most often when both are used, they mean essentially the same thing.

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I am more clear!
Thank you very much!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sean

Code:

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#DEFINE STRING_CONSTANT "String Literal";

char * string_constant = "String Literal";

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In the lines above, a string literal is when I actually have quotes surrounding the literal text. It's when I actually specify the exact string. In my opinion, string constant could mean two things. It could mean the #define statement that I have first. This is usually how constants are done in C. It means that before your code is compiled, every occurence of STRING_CONSTANT will be swapped with the string literal. The second line just puts that string somewhere in the applications memory, and gives me a pointer to it. I can create new pointers to it, etc... but I can't edit the original string because it's hard-coded into the application. That is why this method is also called a string constant.

C++ has a keyword for declaring things as constants ('const'), but this is how it's done in C.

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Thank you very much for detailed explanation!