What character can be used to denote a string in programming?

In programming, strings are typically enclosed using single or double quotes. This convention allows the programming language to distinguish string data from other types of data, such as numbers or variables. For example, in many languages like Python, Java, and JavaScript, you would define a string using quotes like so: 'Hello, World!' or "Hello, World!".

The use of quotes ensures that the text within is treated as a continuous sequence of characters, preserving spaces and special characters, which is essential for text manipulation and output. This ability to designate string literals makes single and double quotes integral to many programming operations, such as concatenation, formatting, and storage of text data.

Curly braces, square brackets, and parentheses serve different purposes in programming. Curly braces often denote blocks of code, square brackets are typically used for arrays or lists, and parentheses are usually utilized to group expressions or define function parameters. Thus, the use of single or double quotes is the standard for denoting strings across many programming languages.