| Identifiers |
Rules
for Legal Identifiers
- Definition: Letter = (A-Z, a-z or '$' or '_' )
- Definition: Digit = ( 0 -9 )
- An identifier is a series of characters consisting of letters,
digits, underscores(_) and dollar signs ($) that does not begin with
a digit, does not contain any spaces and is not a keyword.
- Must begin with a letter, '$', or
"_".
- After the first char, any char that is a letter
(including '$' or '_') or digit may be used.
- Cannot be a reserved word (aka keyword).
- No spaces are allowed in the identifier.
- Cannot have a Java operator symbol (because not a letter or
digit).
- No limit to the number of letters & digits (0 - 9).
- Unicodes & Identifiers - you may also use the Unicode form to build an identifier.
Valid Unicodes are from \u00c0 to \uD7A3 . Therefore, international alphabets can
be used also via the Unicode character set. However, I suggest
not using Unicodes!
- Uses of Identifiers - are used to create names
for variables (primitive or object references), methods, classes,
interfaces, etc...
(Note: For a naming convention, use '$' to access legacy code
(old code that does not follow good naming conventions) or code that
automatically generates identifiers on the fly.) |