What is an escape sequence in C?

An escape sequence in C is indeed a combination of characters that represents a special character. In programming, especially when dealing with strings, certain characters have special meanings or cannot be directly typed out. For instance, characters like a newline ('\n'), a tab ('\t'), or a backslash ('\') are represented using escape sequences to allow them to be embedded within strings.

The use of escape sequences enables programmers to include special characters in string literals that might otherwise disrupt the syntax of the code or are not easily representable. For example, using the escape sequence "\n" allows for line breaks in printed text, which is essential for formatting output.

The other options provided relate to different concepts in C programming. The method for declaring constants pertains to the use of the #define directive or the const keyword, which is about variable declaration rather than representation of characters. Steps in function execution refer to the flow of control in a program and function calls, which do not involve escape sequences. Finally, a type of error in C programming relates to syntax or runtime errors, which are unrelated to the concept of escape sequences used for character representation.