Why does Java require the char variable to use single quotes?

Question

Why is it that Java requires the char variable to enclose anything inside of it with single quotes rather than double? An example of this:

char s = \'s\'; //         


        

Answer 1

Because char and String are two different types, and how else is Java supposed to know whether you want a character or string of length 1?

For example, given the methods:

public void foo(String s) { }
public void foo(char c) { }

And the call

foo("a");

If characters could be made with double quotes, how would Java know which method to call?

Answer 2

This is a question written by a person used to the modern easy scripting languages whose goal is to make programming easy to learn and fast to type.

Java is a language for people who know what the CPU does underneath. In the world of low level languages (assembley, C, Java etc.) a character is an integer (UTF may require more than one int) whereas a string is an array of integers. By allowing a programmer to define the exact variable type, Java allows you to write more efficient code.

But it also allows you to write String s = "s"; if you don't care about efficiency.