A.2.6 String Literals

A string literal, also called a string constant, is a sequence of characters surrounded by double quotes as in "...". A string has type ``array of characters'' and storage class static (see Par.A.3 below) and is initialized with the given characters. Whether identical string literals are distinct is implementation-defined, and the behavior of a program that attempts to alter a string literal is undefined. Adjacent string literals are concatenated into a single string. After any concatenation, a null byte is appended to the string so that programs that scan the string can find its end. String literals do not contain newline or double-quote characters; in order to represent them, the same escape sequences as for character constants are available. As with character constants, string literals in an extended character set are written with a preceding L, as in L"...". Wide-character string literals have type ``array of wchar_t.'' Concatenation of ordinary and wide string literals is undefined. The specification that string literals need not be distinct, and the prohibition against modifying them, are new in the ANSI standard, as is the concatenation of adjacent string literals. Wide-character string literals are new