3.3. Character data type

We also have a data type to store a single letter. It is named "char":

char letter;

Assigning values is simple: we indicate them using single quotes:

letter = 'a';

If we want to read values from the keyboard, we can make it similar in a similar way to the previous cases: read an entire sentence with ReadLine and convert it using Convert.ToChar:

letter = Convert.ToChar(Console.ReadLine());

A program to assign an starting value to a letter, display it, read a new letter entered by the user, and show it again, might be:

/*---------------------------*/

/*  C# Example #29:          */

/*  example29.cs             */

/*                           */

/*  "char" data type         */

/*                           */

/*  Intro to C#,             */

/*    Nacho Cabanes          */

/*---------------------------*/

using System;

public class Example29

{

    public static void Main()

    {

        char letter;

       

        letter = 'a';

        Console.WriteLine("The letter is {0}", letter);

       

        Console.WriteLine("Enter a new letter");

        letter = Convert.ToChar(Console.ReadLine());

        Console.WriteLine("Now the letter is {0}", letter);

    }

}