illegal identifier

[Praveen V]

why the statement
int e# is not a valid identifier?
pls clarify

[Sergey Petunin]

A legal identifier cannot contain symbols any other than letters, digits, underscore and currency symbol, and cannot start with a digit.
A # symbol certainly doesn't qualify to this definition, so the e# identifier is illegal.

[Ulf Dittmer]

Hello "Praveen V"-

Welcome to JavaRanch.

On your way in you may have missed that we have a policy on screen names here at JavaRanch. Basically, it must consist of a first name, a space, and a last name, and not be obviously fictitious. Since yours does not conform with it, please take a moment to change it, which you can do right here.

As to your question, have a look at the section of the Java Language Specification that talks about what makes a valid identifier: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/lexical.html#3.8