C-family of Computer Language Keywords

In the (very large) table in this article are the keywords for the six most popular C-family languages, useful if you are looking to compare keywords between the C-family languages. The popularity index of computer programming languages is taken from the Stack Overflow 2017 Survey. The most popular C or C-like languages are C, C++, Java, PHP, JavaScript and C#.

(Keywords are words that cannot be used by the programmer as identifiers in their code. They are reserved for use by the computer languages themselves for compilation or interpretation.)

Hello World

The Top 10 Most Popular Programming Languages

The Stack Overflow survey is a good indicator to use for the most popular programming languages. This is because Stack Overflow is a leading question and answer resource for working programmers. So it reflects actual programming language usage. In the Stack Overflow survey the top 10 most popular programming languages are:

JavaScript
SQL
Java
C#
Python
PHP
C++
C
TypeScript
Ruby

For the keywords table below only C-family languages that scored 10% or more in the survey were chosen. I.e. 9 out of every 10 survey respondents used one of the languages. This gave the six most popular C-family languages of C, C++, Java, PHP, JavaScript and C#. Interesting TypeScript just missed out of being in the list. What is TypeScript? TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript, a sort of JavaScript++. TypeScript being in the top 10 of most popular programming languages means that 7 out of 10 top programming languages are C-family languages. Therefore Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson certainly got something right with the C programming language.

When were the C-family languages invented?

C - 1972, derived from a language called B from 1969, which was derived from BCPL from 1966
C++ - 1983 beginning as C with Classes in 1979
Java - 1995 beginning as Oak in 1991
PHP - 1995
JavaScript - 1995
C# - 2000
TypeScript - 2012, work began in 2010

Out of the top 10 computer languages only three are not C-family related. Second on the list is another language that orginates from the 1970's, Structured Query Langauge (SQL), the language of relational databases. I.e. a language for storage, compared to C which is a language for computation. However, C often interfaces to SQL in business and engineering software.

Source of the C-family Language Keywords

The following sources where used to compile the table of C-family languages keywords.

Keyword Survival of the Fittest

So which C-family keywords exist across all six of the C-like chosen languages. Using the table of keywords these 12 common ones can be seen:

break
case
const
continue
default
do
else
for
if
return
switch
while

If JavaScript was removed the above list would expand to include a lot of basic types and function modifiers. This is because JavaScript is not a strongly typed language.

List of C-family Languages Keywords

There is no claim of completeness in this table, but if you see a mistake or missing item please let me know. This table is based on the latest version of each language. Just because a keyword appears in more than one language it may not have the same meaning. If it does have the same meaning there may be subtle differences. Understanding the differences is part of being a good programmer.

A keyword in one language may be implemented as a function in another language, or a literal, and vice versa. Only keywords as recognised by the interpreter or compiler are listed. Future reserved words are not included, but if used a compiler may produce a warning. See the resources listed above for more information on future reserved words.

The C# Contextual Keywords are not listed as they are not reserved words but only mean something in specific circumstances, see the C# Contextual Keywords documentation.

Although true, false and null are literals in Java they are include in this list for ease of reference as they cannot be used as identifiers (they are shown in the table in italics).

C	C++	Java	PHP	JavaScript	C#
		abstract	abstract		abstract
_Alignas	alignas
_Alignof	alignof
	and		and
	and_eq
			array()
			as		as
asm	asm
		assert
	atomic_cancel
	atomic_commit
	atomic_noexcept
_Atomic
auto	auto
					base
	bitand
	bitor
_Bool	bool	boolean			bool
break	break	break	break	break	break
		byte			byte
			callable
case	case	case	case	case	case
	catch	catch	catch	catch	catch
char	char	char			char
	char16_t
	char32_t
					checked
	class	class	class	class	class
			clone
	compl
_Complex
	concept
const	const	const	const	const	const
	constexpr
	const_cast
continue	continue	continue	continue	continue	continue
				debugger
					decimal
			declare
	decltype
default	default	default	default	default	default
					delegate
	delete			delete
			die()
do	do	do	do	do	do
double	double	double			double
	dynamic_cast
			echo
else	else	else	else	else	else
			elseif
enum	enum	enum			enum
			empty()
			enddeclare
			endfor
			endforeach
			endif
			endswitch
			endwhile
			eval()
					event
			exit()
	explicit				explicit
	export			export
		extends	extends	extends
extern	extern				extern
	false	false		false	false
	final	final	final
		finally	finally	finally	finally
					fixed
float	float	float			float
for	for	for	for	for	for
			foreach		foreach
fortran
	friend
			function	function
_Generic
			global
goto	goto	goto	goto		goto
			__halt_compiler()
if	if	if	if	if	if
_Imaginary
		implements	implements
					implicit
	import	import		import
				in	in
			include
			include_once
	inline
		instanceof	instanceof	instanceof
			insteadof
int	int	int			int
		interface	interface		interface
					internal
					is
			isset()
			list()
					lock
long	long	long			long
	module
	mutable
		native
	namespace		namespace		namespace
	new	new	new	new	new
	noexcept
_Noreturn
	not
	not_eq
		null		null	null
	nullptr
					object
	operator				operator
	or		or
	or_eq
					out
	override				override
		package
					params
			print
	private	private	private		private
	protected	protected	protected		protected
	public	public	public		public
					readonly
					ref
register	register
	reinterpret_cast
			require
			require_once
	requires
restrict
return	return	return	return	return	return
					sbyte
					sealed
short	short	short			short
signed	signed
sizeof	sizeof				sizeof
					stackalloc
static	static	static	static		static
_Static_assert	static_assert
	static_cast
		strictfp
					string
struct	struct				struct
		super		super
switch	switch	switch	switch	switch	switch
	synchronized	synchronized
	template
	this	this		this	this
_Thread_local	thread_local
	throw	throw	throw	throw	throw
		throws
			trait
	transaction_safe
	transaction_safe _dynamic
		transient
	true	true		true	true
	try	try	try	try	try
typedef	typedef
	typeid
				typeof	typeof
	typename
					uint
					ulong
					unchecked
union	union
					unsafe
			unset()
					ushort
unsigned	unsigned
			use
	using				using
			var	var
	virtual				virtual
void	void	void		void	void
volatile	volatile	volatile			volatile
	wchar_t
while	while	while	while	while	while
				with
	xor		xor
	xor_eq
			yield	yield

Compile Time Keywords

C, C++ Preprocessor - #if, #elif, #else, #endif, #defined, #ifdef, #ifndef, #define, #undef, #include, #line, #error, #pragma, _Pragma()
PHP constants - __CLASS__, __DIR__, __FILE__, __FUNCTION__, __LINE__, __METHOD__, __NAMESPACE__, __TRAIT__

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