What defines a string in programming?

A string in programming is defined as a collection of alphanumeric characters. This encompasses not only letters and numbers but also special characters and spaces, allowing for a wide variety of text representations. Strings are typically used to handle text data, such as names, messages, and other forms of human-readable content.

In many programming languages, strings are enclosed in quotation marks (either single or double), indicating that they represent textual data rather than numeric values or other data types. This definition allows strings to play a crucial role in data manipulation, user input, and output formatting.

The other options do not accurately characterize what a string is in the context of programming. A string is not limited to just a single character, nor is it simply an ordered set of integers or a data type specifically for numeric values. Each of these distinctions highlights the unique features of strings, differentiating them from other common data types like integers or arrays.