modify-syntax-entry

modify-syntax-entry is an interactive built-in function in `C source code'.


(modify-syntax-entry CHAR NEWENTRY &optional SYNTAX-TABLE)

Set syntax for character CHAR according to string NEWENTRY.
The syntax is changed only for table SYNTAX-TABLE, which defaults to
the current buffer's syntax table.
CHAR may be a cons (MIN . MAX), in which case, syntaxes of all characters
in the range MIN to MAX are changed.
The first character of NEWENTRY should be one of the following:
Space or - whitespace syntax. w word constituent.
_ symbol constituent. . punctuation.
( open-parenthesis. ) close-parenthesis.
" string quote. \ escape.
$ paired delimiter. ' expression quote or prefix operator.
< comment starter. > comment ender.
/ character-quote. @ inherit from parent table.
| generic string fence. ! generic comment fence.

Only single-character comment start and end sequences are represented thus.
Two-character sequences are represented as described below.
The second character of NEWENTRY is the matching parenthesis,
used only if the first character is `(' or `)'.
Any additional characters are flags.
Defined flags are the characters 1, 2, 3, 4, b, p, and n.
1 means CHAR is the start of a two-char comment start sequence.
2 means CHAR is the second character of such a sequence.
3 means CHAR is the start of a two-char comment end sequence.
4 means CHAR is the second character of such a sequence.

There can be several orthogonal comment sequences. This is to support
language modes such as C++. By default, all comment sequences are of style
a, but you can set the comment sequence style to b (on the second character
of a comment-start, and the first character of a comment-end sequence) and/or
c (on any of its chars) using this flag:
b means CHAR is part of comment sequence b.
c means CHAR is part of comment sequence c.
n means CHAR is part of a nestable comment sequence.

p means CHAR is a prefix character for `backward-prefix-chars';
such characters are treated as whitespace when they occur
between expressions.