char vs char - how do you pronounce it?

Question

Who pronounces the datatype "char" as in "charbroiled" or as in "character"?

count as of 2009-01-01 12:38 EST:

charbroiled 12

character 8

car 2

both - 1

Answer 1

As in "character".

Answer 2

As in charbroiled. Closer to Portuguese :)

Answer 3

I've never heard anyone pronounce it like "care". I have, however, heard someone pronounce it like "car". In my experience "char" (like an overdone steak) is the most common.

Answer 4

The answer to your question, is "no." That is, people pronounce it different ways. Not everyone pronounces it one way or the other.

As for me, I don't "char" how you pronounce it. :-)

As long as we know what we're both talking about when we work on a project together, it doesn't matter.

Answer 5

I rarely pronounce keywords (most of my collaboration is done online) but in classes I usually say char like care except with a shorter a if that makes sense.

Answer 6

I pronounce it as "char"broiled, and for trivia, so does Stroustrup :-) Not sure how Dennis Ritchie pronounces it though.

Answer 7

I pronounce it like a car

Answer 8

Ironically I use the charbroiled pronunciation, despite the 'character' base of the derivative. I think it's due to the var*char* pronunciation, I just can't hear it being pronounced as var*car*

Answer 9

In short, no. Everyone doesn't pronounce it "char" and everyone doesn't pronounce it "care". But some of us pronounce it "char" and some of us pronounce it "care".

For a really good time, ask how people pronounce "*", "!", and "~".

Answer 10

Im squarely in the Charbroiled camp. If i wasn't, not sure how I would handle the SQL Type

VarChar

Answer 11

Char as in character.

Answer 12

Wow, I just realized I pronounce it both ways:

 char c; // care see

 Create table foo (
     name varchar(30), -- name var char(broiled) thirty

I revel in my inconsistency!

Answer 13

In my head I've always pronounced it like car. I've never actually heard anyone pronounce it though. Most people seem to say "character".

Answer 14

I always pronounced it as "care" in my mind without thinking about it until after I started taking classes and heard somebody pronounce it as "char"(broiled), which actually kind of took me aback until I figure out what they were talking about. Nowadays I still pronounce it as "care", I just think about it more;).

Answer 15

*: star - splat - asterisk

Among the first two, the choice is usually which sounds best or easiest to say in context.

Asterisk is usually uttered only by PHMs.

\: back slash - whack - slash

Whack is usually the choice between techies.

Back slash is used (spoken very slowly) when the new guy asks for the syntax of net use.

Slash is used bt PHMs who can't see the difference.

!: bang Huh? There's another way?

~:
tilldie - common

tilduh - if you feign intellectualosity

squiggle - if you're being silly

(the thing over the 3) : I'm not going there, it's far too divisive.

One highly recommends Victor Borge's "Phonetic Punctuation" for those of you under 50.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4qii8S3gw

Answer 16

I pronounce it char as in character :-).

Answer 17

I pronounce it "care" because char is short for character.

Answer 18

"Care" sounds silly to Brits and Australians (among others), because we pronounce "character" differently to Americans.

We don't have our own version of "char as in character", because it yields a syllable that is rather difficult to pronounce on its own. So I've only ever heard people say "char" as in "charcoal".

I think it's important to add that char is not really a character type. You can't (portably) use a char to store wide characters so IMO it's actually better to think of chars and characters as different things, and so pronouncing them differently is perfectly acceptable.

Lastly, I direct you all to the excellent answer this question received in the Infrequently Asked Questions.

Answer 19

"Char" as in "charbroiled", because it rolls off the tongue nicely when saying "char star" (as in char *).

Answer 20

I just say "character", three syllables. Pronouncing it "car" would be confusing because car is already the name for a function that takes the first element of a list. ;)

Answer 21

Adding my data: Char like charbroiled.

Answer 22

Looks like I am different here.

Char as in Chart ;)

Answer 23

Now you've got me confused.

Answer 24

Being Australian, no matter how I think I pronounce it, it probably sounds like a nasal whinge to most. I'm so Aussie that I had to double check with wikipedia that charbroiling was like barbecuing or chargrilling (we don't seem to use that term here).

Anyway, I think I say "char" as in chargrilling.

Answer 25

Being derived from Character, I pronounce it "care".

Answer 26

Personally I pronounce it as in "charbroiled", but I think "care" would be more appropriate as it's derived from the word character

Answer 27

For me and my colleagues its Char as in Charcoal (soft R) nothing like how it's said in Character (hard R)

Answer 28

I am not sure if am pronouncing correctly(B'cause I am not native speaker) but I usually pronounce as in charcoal.

Answer 29

character ++

Answer 30

char as in charred/charbroiled for me.

Answer 31

Who chars?

Answer 32

As "character" (the full three syllables). Or something in Dutch. ;-)

Just because the programming language / compile abbreviates the type doesn't mean that I should pronounce it that way. You don't actually call the type known as bool with that name, do you? As the word "fool", but starting with a B? If you want to know, I call that a "boolean" or maybe a "flag".

Answer 33

I think the answer depends on you age and programming background. Older programmers who started with languages that required you to spell out all keywords will typically pronounce this "care" because they're thinking "character" when they say it. Younger programmers who grew up primarily on terse, cryptic languages typically pronounce it as in "char-broiled". I'm in the first group.

Then there's the SQL factor. If you actually read SQL a lot, you tend to say "vare-care" or "var-kar", but not "vare-char" (as in "char-broiled").

As others have said, the most important factor is that the listeners understand the speaker.

Once we've mastered telepathy, many such issues disappear. :-)

Answer 34

char as in character.

I'm still baffled as to why people learn that "char" is short for "character" and then decide to pronounce it differently.

Answer 35

char as in CHART

Now i realise that normally i should say char as in character, but this way will NOT sound good at all.

Answer 36

I say byte.

Answer 37

I pronounce it like "car".

Answer 38

I pronounce it like 'car', too.

But then again, I pronounce 'varchar' like charred.

Go figure. Consistency be damned.

Answer 39

char as in character

Answer 40

If you pronounce it car, then how would you distinguish between char and car?

Answer 41

Something like [t͡ʃaɐ], though I’m not sure if the [aɐ] diphthong is always there.

Answer 42

I am on the charbroiled side of things.

Answer 43

I usually go with the 'charbroiled' (probably because of the 'varchar' thing - sounds better)...but I'm now more confused about how people pronounce 'care' and 'character' ??? [Care-ik-tar?]

Where I'm from 'care' rhymes with 'hair', 'fair', 'Tony Blair' and 'au pair'. And 'car' rhymes with 'far', 'blah' and 'lpar'.

Answer 44

Be fluid, like water. Bruce Lee said that once. "Char" as in church with alone, but "car" when using SQL speak for varchar. "Shard" as in cheese from the Swiss but really it's spinach and you call Swiss Chard.

Answer 45

Since I'm German, I pronounce it as in Chart. Because that's how a "ch" is normally pronounced over here.