Notational conventions

The following conventions are used in this manual to represent statement formats and user input:

monospace	Used to represent names that are part of the C language scope and the C library and to indicate cross-references to other terms described in the Glossary. Also used for sample inputs and outputs in examples.
UPPERCASE	Used to indicate symbolic constants (e.g. HUGE_VAL), symbolic names of signals (e.g. SIGABRT) and error codes (e.g. EDOM) that are not implementation-dependent.
{UPPERCASE}	Indicates implementation-dependent symbolic constants that are defined in the header file limits.h (e.g. {INT_MAX}).
italics [ ]	Indicate sample names for parameters in user input. Used to indicate optional syntax elements, i.e. elements that can, but need not be used. The square brackets themselves must not be specified.
...	Ellipses are used in syntax representations to indicate that the preceding syntactic unit may be repeated. Used in examples to indicate an omission of program code.
'BLANK'	This character is used to explicitly indicate a mandatory blank in order to avoid misunderstandings. In general, any white space is considered a blank character..
|	This character is used as a separator for alternative specifications. One of the adjacent entries must be selected. The vertical bar itself must not be specified.
[Key]	Used to represent keys.
[Key1] + [Key2]	Indicates keys that must be pressed simultaneously.
[Key1] [Key2]	Indicates keys that must be pressed in succession.

Descriptions of the entry formats that are used in the reference section to organize the function descriptions can be found at the beginning of chapter "Functions and variables in alphabetical order".