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A variable name must start with a letter or the underscore character. A variable name cannot start with a number. A variable name can only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscores (A-z, 0-9, and _ ) Variable names are case-sensitive (age, Age and AGE are three different variables)
That said, pretty much all of the time a language doesn't allow variable names to begin with numbers is because those are the rules of the language design. Often it is because such a simple rule makes the parsing and lexing of the language vastly easier. Not all language designers know this is the real reason, though.
Variable name may not start with a digit or underscore, and may not end with an underscore. Double underscores are not permitted in variable name. Variable names may not be longer than 32 characters and are required to be shorter for some question types: multiselect, GPS location and some other question types.
A variable name can only have letters (both uppercase and lowercase letters), digits and underscore. The first letter of a variable should be either a letter or an underscore. There is no rule on how long a variable name (identifier) can be.
Because then a string of digits would be a valid identifier as well as a valid number.
int 17 = 497;
int 42 = 6 * 9;
String 1111 = "Totally text";
Well think about this:
int 2d = 42;
double a = 2d;
What is a? 2.0? or 42?
Hint, if you don't get it, d after a number means the number before it is a double literal
It's a convention now, but it started out as a technical requirement.
In the old days, parsers of languages such as FORTRAN or BASIC did not require the uses of spaces. So, basically, the following are identical:
10 V1=100
20 PRINT V1
and
10V1=100
20PRINTV1
Now suppose that numeral prefixes were allowed. How would you interpret this?
101V=100
as
10 1V = 100
or as
101 V = 100
or as
1 01V = 100
So, this was made illegal.
Because backtracking is avoided in lexical analysis while compiling. A variable like:
Apple;
the compiler will know it's a identifier right away when it meets letter 'A'.
However a variable like:
123apple;
compiler won't be able to decide if it's a number or identifier until it hits 'a', and it needs backtracking as a result.
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