Then the compiler runs an assembler, which converts the assembly language into machine language, which is a platform-dependant string of 1's and 0's. Assembly and machine language can be thought of as the same thing, since there's only one bit string that corresponds to a certain command and vice versa. Type system One of the most basic thing about any language is the type system. Almost all languages follow this format. Whenever you create a variable, you need to give it a type from above.
Strings are a special case, since they are arrays.
Also, strings have a special character on the very end of them. This can comment out a small portion of a line or an entire program. Both are useful in different ways. You won't get very far in any language without functions. In C, functions are similar to those in math.