What is the value of the c variable at the end of the following snippet?

Cosd is indeed invalid due to a syntax error. In C programming, the backslash (\) is used as an escape character to denote special characters like newline (\n), tab (\t), null (\0), etc. When you write c = '\';, the compiler expects something to follow the backslash to complete the escape sequence.

Since the backslash is used improperly here without a following character that forms a valid escape sequence, this line of code will cause a compilation error. To correctly assign a backslash to the character variable c, you should use two backslashes:

c = '\\';

This correctly represents a single backslash character. Thus, in the context of the options you provided, the most accurate response is:

• the assignment is invalid and causes a compilation error

In C, characters are represented as integers according to their ASCII values. The ASCII value of 'a' is 97 and the ASCII value of the space character ' ' is 32.

Here’s the snippet you provided:

char c;

c = 'a';
c -= ' ';

Let’s break down the operations step-by-step:

1. Initial assignment:
   • c = 'a' assigns the character 'a' to c. The ASCII value of 'a' is 97.
2. Subtraction operation:
   • c -= ' ' subtracts the ASCII value of ' ' (which is 32) from the ASCII value of 'a'.
   • So, the calculation is: 97 - 32 = 65.
3. Resulting character:
   • The resulting ASCII value, 65, corresponds to the character 'A'.

Therefore, the value of the c variable at the end of the snippet is ‘A’.