In computer programming, an identifier is a name given to a variable, function, or any other entity in the program. An identifier is used to refer to the entity it represents throughout the program. Here are the rules for constructing identifier names:
- An identifier can only be composed of letters, digits, and underscores (_).
- The first character of an identifier must be a letter or an underscore. It cannot be a digit.
- An identifier should not contain any spaces or special characters such as #, $, %, &, *, etc.
- An identifier name must be unique within its scope.
- Identifiers are case-sensitive, meaning that uppercase and lowercase letters are treated as distinct characters. For example, "myVar" and "myvar" are two different identifiers.
Here are some examples of valid identifiers:
- myVar
- my_var
- variable2
- _underscore
And here are some examples of invalid identifiers:
- 123var (because the first character is a digit)
- my-var (because it contains a hyphen)
- my var (because it contains a space)
- if (because it's a reserved keyword in many programming languages)
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Explain identifier