What is Ampere hour?

Because batteries create electron flow in a circuit by exchanging electrons in ionic chemical reactions,
and there is a limited number of molecules in any charged battery available to react, there must be a
limited amount of total electrons that any battery can motivate through a circuit before its energy
reserves are exhausted. Battery capacity could be measured in terms of total number of electrons, but
this would be a huge number. We could use the unit of the coulomb (equal to 6.25 x 10
18
electrons, or
6,250,000,000,000,000,000 electrons) to make the quantities more practical to work with, but instead
a new unit, the amp-hour, was made for this purpose. Since 1 amp is actually a flow rate of 1 coulomb
of electrons per second, and there are 3600 seconds in an hour, we can state a direct proportion
between coulombs and amp-hours: 1 amp-hour = 3600 coulombs. Why make up a new unit when an
old would have done just fine? To make your lives as students and technicians more difficult, of
course!
A battery with a capacity of 1 amp-hour should be able to continuously supply a current of 1 amp to a
load for exactly 1 hour, or 2 amps for 1/2 hour, or 1/3 amp for 3 hours, etc., before becoming
completely discharged. In an ideal battery, this relationship between continuous current and discharge
time is stable and absolute, but real batteries don't behave exactly as this simple linear formula would
indicate. Therefore, when amp-hour capacity is given for a battery, it is specified at either a given
current, given time, or assumed to be rated for a time period of 8 hours (if no limiting factor is given).
For example, an average automotive battery might have a capacity of about 70 amp-hours, specified at
a current of 3.5 amps. This means that the amount of time this battery could continuously supply a
current of 3.5 amps to a load would be 20 hours (70 amp-hours / 3.5 amps). But let's suppose that a
lower-resistance load were connected to that battery, drawing 70 amps continuously. Our amp-hour
equation tells us that the battery should hold out for exactly 1 hour (70 amp-hours / 70 amps), but this
might not be true in real life. With higher currents, the battery will dissipate more heat across its
internal resistance, which has the effect of altering the chemical reactions taking place within.
Chances are, the battery would fully discharge some time before the calculated time of 1 hour under
this greater load.
Conversely, if a very light load (1 mA) were to be connected to the battery, our equation would tell us
that the battery should provide power for 70,000 hours, or just under 8 years (70 amp-hours / 1
milliamp), but the odds are that much of the chemical energy in a real battery would have been
drained due to other factors (evaporation of electrolyte, deterioration of electrodes, leakage current
within battery) long before 8 years had elapsed. Therefore, we must take the amp-hour relationship as
being an ideal approximation of battery life, the amp-hour rating trusted only near the specified
current or timespan given by the manufacturer. Some manufacturers will provide amp-hour derating
factors specifying reductions in total capacity at different levels of current and/or temperature.
For secondary cells, the amp-hour rating provides a rule for necessary charging time at any given
level of charge current. For example, the 70 amp-hour automotive battery in the previous example
should take 10 hours to charge from a fully-discharged state at a constant charging current of 7 amps
(70 amp-hours / 7 amps).
Approximate amp-hour capacities of some common batteries are given here:
Typical automotive battery: 70 amp-hours @ 3.5 A (secondary cell)
D-size carbon-zinc battery: 4.5 amp-hours @ 100 mA (primary cell)
9 volt carbon-zinc battery: 400 milliamp-hours @ 8 mA (primary cell)
As a battery discharges, not only does it diminish its internal store of energy, but its internal resistance
also increases (as the electrolyte becomes less and less conductive), and its open-circuit cell voltage
decreases (as the chemicals become more and more dilute). The most deceptive change that a
discharging battery exhibits is increased resistance. The best check for a battery's condition is a
voltage measurement under load, while the battery is supplying a substantial current through a circuit.
Otherwise, a simple voltmeter check across the terminals may falsely indicate a healthy battery
(adequate voltage) even though the internal resistance has increased considerably. What constitutes a
"substantial current" is determined by the battery's design parameters. A voltmeter check revealing
too low of a voltage, of course, would positively indicate a discharged battery:
Fully charged battery:

Now, if the battery discharges a bit . . .

. . . and discharges a bit further . . .

. . . and a bit further until its dead.

Notice how much better the battery's true condition is revealed when its voltage is checked under load
as opposed to without a load. Does this mean that its pointless to check a battery with just a voltmeter
(no load)? Well, no. If a simple voltmeter check reveals only 7.5 volts for a 13.2 volt battery, then you
know without a doubt that its dead. However, if the voltmeter were to indicate 12.5 volts, it may be
near full charge or somewhat depleted -- you couldn't tell without a load check. Bear in mind also that
the resistance used to place a battery under load must be rated for the amount of power expected to be
dissipated. For checking large batteries such as an automobile (12 volt nominal) lead-acid battery, this
may mean a resistor with a power rating of several hundred watts.
REVIEW:
The amp-hour is a unit of battery energy capacity, equal to the amount of continuous current
multiplied by the discharge time, that a battery can supply before exhausting its internal store
of chemical energy.

An amp-hour battery rating is only an approximation of the battery's charge capacity, and
should be trusted only at the current level or time specified by the manufacturer. Such a rating
cannot be extrapolated for very high currents or very long times with any accuracy.
Discharged batteries lose voltage and increase in resistance. The best check for a dead battery
is a voltage test under load.
Intro to C
Every full C program begins inside a function called "main". A function is simply a collection of
commands that do "something". The main function is always called when the program first executes.
From main, we can call other functions, whether they be written by us or by others or use built-in
language features. To access the standard functions that comes with your compiler, you need to
include a header with the #include directive. What this does is effectively take everything in the
header and paste it into your program. Let's look at a working program:
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf( "I am alive! Beware.\n" );
getchar();
return 0;
}
Let's look at the elements of the program. The #include is a "preprocessor" directive that tells the
compiler to put code from the header called stdio.h into our program before actually creating the
executable. By including header files, you can gain access to many different functions--both the printf
and getchar functions are included in stdio.h.

The next important line is int main(). This line tells the compiler that there is a function named main,
and that the function returns an integer, hence int. The "curly braces" ({ and }) signal the beginning
and end of functions and other code blocks. If you have programmed in Pascal, you will know them
as BEGIN and END. Even if you haven't programmed in Pascal, this is a good way to think about
their meaning.

The printf function is the standard C way of displaying output on the screen. The quotes tell the
compiler that you want to output the literal string as-is (almost). The '\n' sequence is actually treated
as a single character that stands for a newline (we'll talk about this later in more detail); for the time
being, just remember that there are a few sequences that, when they appear in a string literal, are
actually not displayed literally by printf and that '\n' is one of them. The actual effect of '\n' is to move
the cursor on your screen to the next line. Notice the semicolon: it tells the compiler that you're at the
end of a command, such as a function call. You will see that the semicolon is used to end many lines
in C.

The next command is getchar(). This is another function call: it reads in a single character and waits
for the user to hit enter before reading the character. This line is included because many compiler
environments will open a new console window, run the program, and then close the window before
you can see the output. This command keeps that window from closing because the program is not
done yet because it waits for you to hit enter. Including that line gives you time to see the program
run.

Finally, at the end of the program, we return a value from main to the operating system by using the
return statement. This return value is important as it can be used to tell the operating system whether
our program succeeded or not. A return value of 0 means success.

The final brace closes off the function. You should try compiling this program and running it. You
can cut and paste the code into a file, save it as a .c file, and then compile it. If you are using a
command-line compiler, such as Borland C++ 5.5, you should read the compiler instructions for
information on how to compile. Otherwise compiling and running should be as simple as clicking a
button with your mouse (perhaps the "build" or "run" button).

You might start playing around with the printf function and get used to writing simple C programs.
Explaining your Code
Comments are critical for all but the most trivial programs and this tutorial will often use them to
explain sections of code. When you tell the compiler a section of text is a comment, it will ignore it
when running the code, allowing you to use any text you want to describe the real code. To create a
comment in C, you surround the text with /* and then */ to block off everything between as a
comment. Certain compiler environments or text editors will change the color of a commented area to
make it easier to spot, but some will not. Be certain not to accidentally comment out code (that is, to
tell the compiler part of your code is a comment) you need for the program.

When you are learning to program, it is also useful to comment out sections of code in order to see
how the output is affected.
Using Variables
So far you should be able to write a simple program to display information typed in by you, the
programmer and to describe your program with comments. That's great, but what about interacting
with your user? Fortunately, it is also possible for your program to accept input.

But first, before you try to receive input, you must have a place to store that input. In programming,
input and data are stored in variables. There are several different types of variables; when you tell the
compiler you are declaring a variable, you must include the data type along with the name of the
variable. Several basic types include char, int, and float. Each type can store different types of data.

A variable of type char stores a single character, variables of type int store integers (numbers without
decimal places), and variables of type float store numbers with decimal places. Each of these variable
types - char, int, and float - is each a keyword that you use when you declare a variable. Some
variables also use more of the computer's memory to store their values.

It may seem strange to have multiple variable types when it seems like some variable types are
redundant. But using the right variable size can be important for making your program efficient
because some variables require more memory than others. For now, suffice it to say that the different
variable types will almost all be used!

Before you can use a variable, you must tell the compiler about it by declaring it and telling the
compiler about what its "type" is. To declare a variable you use the syntax <variable type> <name of
variable>;. (The brackets here indicate that your replace the expression with text described within the
brackets.) For instance, a basic variable declaration might look like this:
int myVariable;
Note once again the use of a semicolon at the end of the line. Even though we're not calling a
function, a semicolon is still required at the end of the "expression". This code would create a variable
called myVariable; now we are free to use myVariable later in the program.

It is permissible to declare multiple variables of the same type on the same line; each one should be
separated by a comma. If you attempt to use an undefined variable, your program will not run, and
you will receive an error message informing you that you have made a mistake.

Here are some variable declaration examples:
int x;
int a, b, c, d;
char letter;
float the_float;
While you can have multiple variables of the same type, you cannot have multiple variables with the
same name. Moreover, you cannot have variables and functions with the same name.

A final restriction on variables is that variable declarations must come before other types of
statements in the given "code block" (a code block is just a segment of code surrounded by { and }).
So in C you must declare all of your variables before you do anything else:

Wrong
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
/* wrong! The variable declaration must appear first */
printf( "Declare x next" );
int x;

return 0;
}
Fixed
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int x;
printf( "Declare x first" );

return 0;
}
Lesson 2: If statements in C

By Alex Allain
The ability to control the flow of your program, letting it make decisions on what code to execute, is
valuable to the programmer. The if statement allows you to control if a program enters a section of
code or not based on whether a given condition is true or false. One of the important functions of the
if statement is that it allows the program to select an action based upon the user's input. For example,
by using an if statement to check a user-entered password, your program can decide whether a user is
allowed access to the program.




Without a conditional statement such as the if statement, programs would run almost the exact same
way every time, always following the same sequence of function calls. If statements allow the flow of
the program to be changed, which leads to more interesting code.

Before discussing the actual structure of the if statement, let us examine the meaning of TRUE and
FALSE in computer terminology. A true statement is one that evaluates to a nonzero number. A false
statement evaluates to zero. When you perform comparison with the relational operators, the operator
will return 1 if the comparison is true, or 0 if the comparison is false. For example, the check 0 == 2
evaluates to 0. The check 2 == 2 evaluates to a 1. If this confuses you, try to use a printf statement to
output the result of those various comparisons (for example printf ( "%d", 2 == 1 );)

When programming, the aim of the program will often require the checking of one value stored by a
variable against another value to determine whether one is larger, smaller, or equal to the other.

There are a number of operators that allow these checks.

Here are the relational operators, as they are known, along with examples:
> greater than 5 > 4 is TRUE
< less than 4 < 5 is TRUE
>= greater than or equal 4 >= 4 is TRUE
<= less than or equal 3 <= 4 is TRUE
== equal to 5 == 5 is TRUE
!= not equal to 5 != 4 is TRUE
It is highly probable that you have seen these before, probably with slightly different symbols. They
should not present any hindrance to understanding. Now that you understand TRUE and FALSE well
as the comparison operators, let us look at the actual structure of if statements.
Basic If Syntax
The structure of an if statement is as follows:
if ( statement is TRUE )
Execute this line of code
Here is a simple example that shows the syntax:
if ( 5 < 10 )
printf( "Five is now less than ten, that's a big surprise" );
Here, we're just evaluating the statement, "is five less than ten", to see if it is true or not; with any
luck, it is! If you want, you can write your own full program including stdio.h and put this in the main
function and run it to test.

To have more than one statement execute after an if statement that evaluates to true, use braces, like
we did with the body of the main function. Anything inside braces is called a compound statement, or
a block. When using if statements, the code that depends on the if statement is called the "body" of the
if statement.

For example:
if ( TRUE ) {
/* between the braces is the body of the if statement */
Execute all statements inside the body
}
I recommend always putting braces following if statements. If you do this, you never have to
remember to put them in when you want more than one statement to be executed, and you make the
body of the if statement more visually clear.


Else
Sometimes when the condition in an if statement evaluates to false, it would be nice to execute some
code instead of the code executed when the statement evaluates to true. The "else" statement
effectively says that whatever code after it (whether a single line or code between brackets) is
executed if the if statement is FALSE.

It can look like this:
if ( TRUE ) {
/* Execute these statements if TRUE */
}
else {
/* Execute these statements if FALSE */
}
Else if
Another use of else is when there are multiple conditional statements that may all evaluate to true, yet
you want only one if statement's body to execute. You can use an "else if" statement following an if
statement and its body; that way, if the first statement is true, the "else if" will be ignored, but if the if
statement is false, it will then check the condition for the else if statement. If the if statement was true
the else statement will not be checked. It is possible to use numerous else if statements to ensure that
only one block of code is executed.

Let's look at a simple program for you to try out on your own.
#include <stdio.h>

int main() /* Most important part of the program! */
{
int age; /* Need a variable... */

printf( "Please enter your age" ); /* Asks for age */
scanf( "%d", &age ); /* The input is put in age */
if ( age < 100 ) { /* If the age is less than 100 */
printf ("You are pretty young!\n" ); /* Just to show you it works... */
}
else if ( age == 100 ) { /* I use else just to show an example */
printf( "You are old\n" );
}
else {
printf( "You are really old\n" ); /* Executed if no other statement is */
}
return 0;
}
More interesting conditions using boolean operators
Boolean operators allow you to create more complex conditional statements. For example, if you wish
to check if a variable is both greater than five and less than ten, you could use the Boolean AND to
ensure both var > 5 and var < 10 are true. In the following discussion of Boolean operators, I will
capitalize the Boolean operators in order to distinguish them from normal English. The actual C
operators of equivalent function will be described further along into the tutorial - the C symbols are
not: OR, AND, NOT, although they are of equivalent function.

When using if statements, you will often wish to check multiple different conditions. You must
understand the Boolean operators OR, NOT, and AND. The boolean operators function in a similar
way to the comparison operators: each returns 0 if evaluates to FALSE or 1 if it evaluates to TRUE.

NOT: The NOT operator accepts one input. If that input is TRUE, it returns FALSE, and if that input
is FALSE, it returns TRUE. For example, NOT (1) evaluates to 0, and NOT (0) evaluates to 1. NOT
(any number but zero) evaluates to 0. In C NOT is written as !. NOT is evaluated prior to both AND
and OR.

AND: This is another important command. AND returns TRUE if both inputs are TRUE (if 'this'
AND 'that' are true). (1) AND (0) would evaluate to zero because one of the inputs is false (both must
be TRUE for it to evaluate to TRUE). (1) AND (1) evaluates to 1. (any number but 0) AND (0)
evaluates to 0. The AND operator is written && in C. Do not be confused by thinking it checks
equality between numbers: it does not. Keep in mind that the AND operator is evaluated before the
OR operator.

OR: Very useful is the OR statement! If either (or both) of the two values it checks are TRUE then it
returns TRUE. For example, (1) OR (0) evaluates to 1. (0) OR (0) evaluates to 0. The OR is written as
|| in C. Those are the pipe characters. On your keyboard, they may look like a stretched colon. On my
computer the pipe shares its key with \. Keep in mind that OR will be evaluated after AND.

It is possible to combine several Boolean operators in a single statement; often you will find doing so
to be of great value when creating complex expressions for if statements. What is !(1 && 0)? Of
course, it would be TRUE. It is true is because 1 && 0 evaluates to 0 and !0 evaluates to TRUE (i.e.,
1).

Try some of these - they're not too hard. If you have questions about them, feel free to stop by our
forums.
A. !( 1 || 0 ) ANSWER: 0
B. !( 1 || 1 && 0 ) ANSWER: 0 (AND is evaluated before OR)
C. !( ( 1 || 0 ) && 0 ) ANSWER: 1 (Parenthesis are useful)
If you find you enjoyed this section, then you might want to look more at Boolean Algebra.

Lesson 3: Loops

By Alex Allain
Loops are used to repeat a block of code. Being able to have your program repeatedly execute a block
of code is one of the most basic but useful tasks in programming -- many programs or websites that
produce extremely complex output (such as a message board) are really only executing a single task
many times. (They may be executing a small number of tasks, but in principle, to produce a list of
messages only requires repeating the operation of reading in some data and displaying it.) Now, think
about what this means: a loop lets you write a very simple statement to produce a significantly greater
result simply by repetition.




One caveat: before going further, you should understand the concept of C's true and false, because it
will be necessary when working with loops (the conditions are the same as with if statements). This
concept is covered in the previous tutorial. There are three types of loops: for, while, and do..while.
Each of them has their specific uses. They are all outlined below.

FOR - for loops are the most useful type. The syntax for a for loop is


for ( variable initialization; condition; variable update ) {
Code to execute while the condition is true
}
The variable initialization allows you to either declare a variable and give it a value or give a value to
an already existing variable. Second, the condition tells the program that while the conditional
expression is true the loop should continue to repeat itself. The variable update section is the easiest
way for a for loop to handle changing of the variable. It is possible to do things like x++, x = x + 10,
or even x = random ( 5 ), and if you really wanted to, you could call other functions that do nothing to
the variable but still have a useful effect on the code. Notice that a semicolon separates each of these
sections, that is important. Also note that every single one of the sections may be empty, though the
semicolons still have to be there. If the condition is empty, it is evaluated as true and the loop will
repeat until something else stops it.

Example:
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
int x;
/* The loop goes while x < 10, and x increases by one every loop*/
for ( x = 0; x < 10; x++ ) {
/* Keep in mind that the loop condition checks
the conditional statement before it loops again.
consequently, when x equals 10 the loop breaks.
x is updated before the condition is checked. */
printf( "%d\n", x );
}
getchar();
}
This program is a very simple example of a for loop. x is set to zero, while x is less than 10 it calls
printf to display the value of the variable x, and it adds 1 to x until the condition is met. Keep in mind
also that the variable is incremented after the code in the loop is run for the first time.

WHILE - WHILE loops are very simple. The basic structure is

while ( condition ) { Code to execute while the condition is true } The true represents a boolean
expression which could be x == 1 or while ( x != 7 ) (x does not equal 7). It can be any combination
of boolean statements that are legal. Even, (while x ==5 || v == 7) which says execute the code while
x equals five or while v equals 7. Notice that a while loop is like a stripped-down version of a for
loop-- it has no initialization or update section. However, an empty condition is not legal for a while
loop as it is with a for loop.

Example:
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
int x = 0; /* Don't forget to declare variables */

while ( x < 10 ) { /* While x is less than 10 */
printf( "%d\n", x );
x++; /* Update x so the condition can be met eventually */
}
getchar();
}
This was another simple example, but it is longer than the above FOR loop. The easiest way to think
of the loop is that when it reaches the brace at the end it jumps back up to the beginning of the loop,
which checks the condition again and decides whether to repeat the block another time, or stop and
move to the next statement after the block.

DO..WHILE - DO..WHILE loops are useful for things that want to loop at least once. The structure is
do {
} while ( condition );
Notice that the condition is tested at the end of the block instead of the beginning, so the block will be
executed at least once. If the condition is true, we jump back to the beginning of the block and execute
it again. A do..while loop is almost the same as a while loop except that the loop body is guaranteed to
execute at least once. A while loop says "Loop while the condition is true, and execute this block of
code", a do..while loop says "Execute this block of code, and then continue to loop while the
condition is true".

Example:
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
int x;

x = 0;
do {
/* "Hello, world!" is printed at least one time
even though the condition is false */
printf( "Hello, world!\n" );
} while ( x != 0 );
getchar();
}
Keep in mind that you must include a trailing semi-colon after the while in the above example. A
common error is to forget that a do..while loop must be terminated with a semicolon (the other loops
should not be terminated with a semicolon, adding to the confusion). Notice that this loop will execute
once, because it automatically executes before checking the condition.
Break and Continue

Two keywords that are very important to looping are break and continue. The break command will
exit the most immediately surrounding loop regardless of what the conditions of the loop are. Break is
useful if we want to exit a loop under special circumstances. For example, let's say the program we're
working on is a two-person checkers game. The basic structure of the program might look like this:
while (true)
{
take_turn(player1);
take_turn(player2);
}
This will make the game alternate between having player 1 and player 2 take turns. The only problem
with this logic is that there's no way to exit the game; the loop will run forever! Let's try something
like this instead:
while(true)
{
if (someone_has_won() || someone_wants_to_quit() == TRUE)
{break;}
take_turn(player1);
if (someone_has_won() || someone_wants_to_quit() == TRUE)
{break;}
take_turn(player2);
}
This code accomplishes what we want--the primary loop of the game will continue under normal
circumstances, but under a special condition (winning or exiting) the flow will stop and our program
will do something else.
Continue is another keyword that controls the flow of loops. If you are executing a loop and hit a
continue statement, the loop will stop its current iteration, update itself (in the case of for loops) and
begin to execute again from the top. Essentially, the continue statement is saying "this iteration of the
loop is done, let's continue with the loop without executing whatever code comes after me." Let's say
we're implementing a game of Monopoly. Like above, we want to use a loop to control whose turn it
is, but controlling turns is a bit more complicated in Monopoly than in checkers. The basic structure
of our code might then look something like this:
for (player = 1; someone_has_won == FALSE; player++)
{
if (player > total_number_of_players)
{player = 1;}
if (is_bankrupt(player))
{continue;}
take_turn(player);
}
This way, if one player can't take her turn, the game doesn't stop for everybody; we just skip her and
keep going with the next player's turn.
Lesson 4: Functions in C

By Alex Allain
Now that you should have learned about variables, loops, and conditional statements it is time to learn
about functions. You should have an idea of their uses as we have already used them and defined one
in the guise of main. Getchar is another example of a function. In general, functions are blocks of
code that perform a number of pre-defined commands to accomplish something productive. You can
either use the built-in library functions or you can create your own functions.




Functions that a programmer writes will generally require a prototype. Just like a blueprint, the
prototype gives basic structural information: it tells the compiler what the function will return, what
the function will be called, as well as what arguments the function can be passed. When I say that the
function returns a value, I mean that the function can be used in the same manner as a variable would
be. For example, a variable can be set equal to a function that returns a value between zero and four.

For example:
#include <stdlib.h> /* Include rand() */

int a = rand(); /* rand is a standard function that all compilers have */
Do not think that 'a' will change at random, it will be set to the value returned when the function is
called, but it will not change again.

The general format for a prototype is simple:
return-type function_name ( arg_type arg1, ..., arg_type argN );
arg_type just means the type for each argument -- for instance, an int, a float, or a char. It's exactly the
same thing as what you would put if you were declaring a variable.

There can be more than one argument passed to a function or none at all (where the parentheses are
empty), and it does not have to return a value. Functions that do not return values have a return type
of void. Let's look at a function prototype:
int mult ( int x, int y );
This prototype specifies that the function mult will accept two arguments, both integers, and that it
will return an integer. Do not forget the trailing semi-colon. Without it, the compiler will probably
think that you are trying to write the actual definition of the function.

When the programmer actually defines the function, it will begin with the prototype, minus the semi-
colon. Then there should always be a block (surrounded by curly braces) with the code that the
function is to execute, just as you would write it for the main function. Any of the arguments passed
to the function can be used as if they were declared in the block. Finally, end it all with a cherry and a
closing brace. Okay, maybe not a cherry.

Let's look at an example program:
#include <stdio.h>

int mult ( int x, int y );

int main()
{
int x;
int y;

printf( "Please input two numbers to be multiplied: " );
scanf( "%d", &x );
scanf( "%d", &y );
printf( "The product of your two numbers is %d\n", mult( x, y ) );
getchar();
}

int mult (int x, int y)
{
return x * y;
}
This program begins with the only necessary include file. Next is the prototype of the function. Notice
that it has the final semi-colon! The main function returns an integer, which you should always have
to conform to the standard. You should not have trouble understanding the input and output functions
if you've followed the previous tutorials.

Notice how printf actually takes the value of what appears to be the mult function. What is really
happening is printf is accepting the value returned by mult, not mult itself. The result would be the
same as if we had use this print instead
printf( "The product of your two numbers is %d\n", x * y );
The mult function is actually defined below main. Because its prototype is above main, the compiler
still recognizes it as being declared, and so the compiler will not give an error about mult being
undeclared. As long as the prototype is present, a function can be used even if there is no definition.
However, the code cannot be run without a definition even though it will compile.

Prototypes are declarations of the function, but they are only necessary to alert the compiler about the
existence of a function if we don't want to go ahead and fully define the function. If mult were defined
before it is used, we could do away with the prototype--the definition basically acts as a prototype as
well.

Return is the keyword used to force the function to return a value. Note that it is possible to have a
function that returns no value. If a function returns void, the return statement is valid, but only if it
does not have an expression. In other words, for a function that returns void, the statement "return;" is
legal, but usually redundant. (It can be used to exit the function before the end of the function.)

The most important functional (pun semi-intended) question is why do we need a function? Functions
have many uses. For example, a programmer may have a block of code that he has repeated forty
times throughout the program. A function to execute that code would save a great deal of space, and it
would also make the program more readable. Also, having only one copy of the code makes it easier
to make changes. Would you rather make forty little changes scattered all throughout a potentially
large program, or one change to the function body? So would I.

Another reason for functions is to break down a complex program into logical parts. For example,
take a menu program that runs complex code when a menu choice is selected. The program would
probably best be served by making functions for each of the actual menu choices, and then breaking
down the complex tasks into smaller, more manageable tasks, which could be in their own functions.
In this way, a program can be designed that makes sense when read. And has a structure that is easier
to understand quickly. The worst programs usually only have the required function, main, and fill it
with pages of jumbled code.

Lesson 5: switch case in C

By Alex Allain
Switch case statements are a substitute for long if statements that compare a variable to several
"integral" values ("integral" values are simply values that can be expressed as an integer, such as the
value of a char). The basic format for using switch case is outlined below. The value of the variable
given into switch is compared to the value following each of the cases, and when one value matches
the value of the variable, the computer continues executing the program from that point.
switch ( <variable> ) {
case this-value:
Code to execute if <variable> == this-value
break;
case that-value:
Code to execute if <variable> == that-value
break;
...
default:
Code to execute if <variable> does not equal the value following any of the cases
break;
}


The condition of a switch statement is a value. The case says that if it has the value of whatever is
after that case then do whatever follows the colon. The break is used to break out of the case
statements. Break is a keyword that breaks out of the code block, usually surrounded by braces, which
it is in. In this case, break prevents the program from falling through and executing the code in all the
other case statements. An important thing to note about the switch statement is that the case values
may only be constant integral expressions. Sadly, it isn't legal to use case like this:
int a = 10;
int b = 10;
int c = 20;

switch ( a ) {
case b:
/* Code */
break;
case c:
/* Code */
break;
default:
/* Code */
break;
}
The default case is optional, but it is wise to include it as it handles any unexpected cases. It can be
useful to put some kind of output to alert you to the code entering the default case if you don't expect
it to. Switch statements serve as a simple way to write long if statements when the requirements are
met. Often it can be used to process input from a user.

Below is a sample program, in which not all of the proper functions are actually declared, but which
shows how one would use switch in a program.
#include <stdio.h>

void playgame()
{
printf( "Play game called" );
}
void loadgame()
{
printf( "Load game called" );
}
void playmultiplayer()
{
printf( "Play multiplayer game called" );
}

int main()
{
int input;

printf( "1. Play game\n" );
printf( "2. Load game\n" );
printf( "3. Play multiplayer\n" );
printf( "4. Exit\n" );
printf( "Selection: " );
scanf( "%d", &input );
switch ( input ) {
case 1: /* Note the colon, not a semicolon */
playgame();
break;
case 2:
loadgame();
break;
case 3:
playmultiplayer();
break;
case 4:
printf( "Thanks for playing!\n" );
break;
default:
printf( "Bad input, quitting!\n" );
break;
}
getchar();

}
This program will compile, but cannot be run until the undefined functions are given bodies, but it
serves as a model (albeit simple) for processing input. If you do not understand this then try mentally
putting in if statements for the case statements. Default simply skips out of the switch case
construction and allows the program to terminate naturally. If you do not like that, then you can make
a loop around the whole thing to have it wait for valid input. You could easily make a few small
functions if you wish to test the code.

Lesson 6: Pointers in C

By Alex Allain
Pointers are an extremely powerful programming tool. They can make some things much easier, help
improve your program's efficiency, and even allow you to handle unlimited amounts of data. For
example, using pointers is one way to have a function modify a variable passed to it. It is also possible
to use pointers to dynamically allocate memory, which means that you can write programs that can
handle nearly unlimited amounts of data on the fly--you don't need to know, when you write the
program, how much memory you need. Wow, that's kind of cool. Actually, it's very cool, as we'll see
in some of the next tutorials. For now, let's just get a basic handle on what pointers are and how you
use them.


What are pointers? Why should you care?
Pointers are aptly name: they "point" to locations in memory. Think of a row of safety deposit boxes
of various sizes at a local bank. Each safety deposit box will have a number associated with it so that
you can quickly look it up. These numbers are like the memory addresses of variables. A pointer in
the world of safety deposit box would simply be anything that stored the number of another safety
deposit box. Perhaps you have a rich uncle who stored valuables in his safety deposit box, but decided
to put the real location in another, smaller, safety deposit box that only stored a card with the number
of the large box with the real jewelry. The safety deposit box with the card would be storing the
location of another box; it would be equivalent to a pointer. In the computer, pointers are just
variables that store memory addresses, usually the addresses of other variables.

The cool thing is that once you can talk about the address of a variable, you'll then be able to go to
that address and retrieve the data stored in it. If you happen to have a huge piece of data that you want
to pass into a function, it's a lot easier to pass its location to the function than to copy every element of
the data! Moreover, if you need more memory for your program, you can request more memory from
the system--how do you get "back" that memory? The system tells you where it is located in memory;
that is to say, you get a memory address back. And you need pointers to store the memory address.

A note about terms: the word pointer can refer either to a memory address itself, or to a variable that
stores a memory address. Usually, the distinction isn't really that important: if you pass a pointer
variable into a function, you're passing the value stored in the pointer--the memory address. When I
want to talk about a memory address, I'll refer to it as a memory address; when I want a variable that
stores a memory address, I'll call it a pointer. When a variable stores the address of another variable,
I'll say that it is "pointing to" that variable.
C Pointer Syntax
Pointers require a bit of new syntax because when you have a pointer, you need the ability to both
request the memory location it stores and the value stored at that memory location. Moreover, since
pointers are somewhat special, you need to tell the compiler when you declare your pointer variable
that the variable is a pointer, and tell the compiler what type of memory it points to.

The pointer declaration looks like this:
<variable_type> *<name>;
For example, you could declare a pointer that stores the address of an integer with the following
syntax:
int *points_to_integer;
Notice the use of the *. This is the key to declaring a pointer; if you add it directly before the variable
name, it will declare the variable to be a pointer. Minor gotcha: if you declare multiple pointers on the
same line, you must precede each of them with an asterisk:
/* one pointer, one regular int */
int *pointer1, nonpointer1;

/* two pointers */
int *pointer1, *pointer2;
As I mentioned, there are two ways to use the pointer to access information: it is possible to have it
give the actual address to another variable. To do so, simply use the name of the pointer without the *.
However, to access the actual memory location, use the *. The technical name for this doing this is
dereferencing the pointer; in essence, you're taking the reference to some memory address and
following it, to retrieve the actual value. It can be tricky to keep track of when you should add the
asterisk. Remember that the pointer's natural use is to store a memory address; so when you use the
pointer:
call_to_function_expecting_memory_address(pointer);
then it evaluates to the address. You have to add something extra, the asterisk, in order to retrieve the
value stored at the address. You'll probably do that an awful lot. Nevertheless, the pointer itself is
supposed to store an address, so when you use the bare pointer, you get that address back.
Pointing to Something: Retrieving an Address
In order to have a pointer actually point to another variable it is necessary to have the memory address
of that variable also. To get the memory address of a variable (its location in memory), put the & sign
in front of the variable name. This makes it give its address. This is called the address-of operator,
because it returns the memory address. Conveniently, both ampersand and address-of start with a;
that's a useful way to remember that you use & to get the address of a variable.

For example:
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
int x; /* A normal integer*/
int *p; /* A pointer to an integer ("*p" is an integer, so p
must be a pointer to an integer) */

p = &x; /* Read it, "assign the address of x to p" */
scanf( "%d", &x ); /* Put a value in x, we could also use p here */
printf( "%d\n", *p ); /* Note the use of the * to get the value */
getchar();
}
The printf outputs the value stored in x. Why is that? Well, let's look at the code. The integer is called
x. A pointer to an integer is then defined as p. Then it stores the memory location of x in pointer by
using the address operator (&) to get the address of the variable. Using the ampersand is a bit like
looking at the label on the safety deposit box to see its number rather than looking inside the box, to
get what it stores. The user then inputs a number that is stored in the variable x; remember, this is the
same location that is pointed to by p. In fact, since we use an ampersand to pass the value to scanf, it
should be clear that scanf is putting the value in the address pointed to by p. (In fact, scanf works
because of pointers!)

The next line then passes *p into printf. *p performs the "dereferencing" operation on p; it looks at the
address stored in p, and goes to that address and returns the value. This is akin to looking inside a
safety deposit box only to find the number of (and, presumably, the key to ) another box, which you
then open.

Notice that in the above example, the pointer is initialized to point to a specific memory address
before it is used. If this was not the case, it could be pointing to anything. This can lead to extremely
unpleasant consequences to the program. For instance, the operating system will probably prevent you
from accessing memory that it knows your program doesn't own: this will cause your program to
crash. If it let you use the memory, you could mess with the memory of any running program--for
instance, if you had a document opened in Word, you could change the text! Fortunately, Windows
and other modern operating systems will stop you from accessing that memory and cause your
program to crash. To avoid crashing your program, you should always initialize pointers before you
use them.

It is also possible to initialize pointers using free memory. This allows dynamic allocation of memory.
It is useful for setting up structures such as linked lists or data trees where you don't know exactly
how much memory will be needed at compile time, so you have to get memory during the program's
execution. We'll look at these structures later, but for now, we'll simply examine how to request
memory from and return memory to the operating system.

The function malloc, residing in the stdlib.h header file, is used to initialize pointers with memory
from free store (a section of memory available to all programs). malloc works just like any other
function call. The argument to malloc is the amount of memory requested (in bytes), and malloc gets a
block of memory of that size and then returns a pointer to the block of memory allocated.

Since different variable types have different memory requirements, we need to get a size for the
amount of memory malloc should return. So we need to know how to get the size of different variable
types. This can be done using the keyword sizeof, which takes an expression and returns its size. For
example, sizeof(int) would return the number of bytes required to store an integer.
#include <stdlib.h>

int *ptr = malloc( sizeof(int) );
This code set ptr to point to a memory address of size int. The memory that is pointed to becomes
unavailable to other programs. This means that the careful coder should free this memory at the end of
its usage lest the memory be lost to the operating system for the duration of the program (this is often
called a memory leak because the program is not keeping track of all of its memory).

Note that it is slightly cleaner to write malloc statements by taking the size of the variable pointed to
by using the pointer directly:
int *ptr = malloc( sizeof(*ptr) );
What's going on here? sizeof(*ptr) will evaluate the size of whatever we would get back from
dereferencing ptr; since ptr is a pointer to an int, *ptr would give us an int, so sizeof(*ptr) will return
the size of an integer. So why do this? Well, if we later rewrite the declaration of ptr the following,
then we would only have to rewrite the first part of it:
float *ptr = malloc( sizeof(*ptr) );
We don't have to go back and correct the malloc call to use sizeof(float). Since ptr would be pointing
to a float, *ptr would be a float, so sizeof(*ptr) would still give the right size!

This becomes even more useful when you end up allocating memory for a variable far after the point
you declare it:
float *ptr;
/* hundreds of lines of code */
ptr = malloc( sizeof(*ptr) );


The free function returns memory to the operating system.
free( ptr );
After freeing a pointer, it is a good idea to reset it to point to 0. When 0 is assigned to a pointer, the
pointer becomes a null pointer, in other words, it points to nothing. By doing this, when you do
something foolish with the pointer (it happens a lot, even with experienced programmers), you find
out immediately instead of later, when you have done considerable damage.

The concept of the null pointer is frequently used as a way of indicating a problem--for instance,
malloc returns 0 when it cannot correctly allocate memory. You want to be sure to handle this
correctly--sometimes your operating system might actually run out of memory and give you this
value!
Taking Stock of Pointers
Pointers may feel like a very confusing topic at first but I think anyone can come to appreciate and
understand them. If you didn't feel like you absorbed everything about them, just take a few deep
breaths and re-read the lesson. You shouldn't feel like you've fully grasped every nuance of when and
why you need to use pointers, though you should have some idea of some of their basic uses.
Lesson 7: Structures in C

By Alex Allain
When programming, it is often convenient to have a single name with which to refer to a group of a
related values. Structures provide a way of storing many different values in variables of potentially
different types under the same name. This makes it a more modular program, which is easier to
modify because its design makes things more compact. Structs are generally useful whenever a lot of
data needs to be grouped together--for instance, they can be used to hold records from a database or to
store information about contacts in an address book. In the contacts example, a struct could be used
that would hold all of the information about a single contact--name, address, phone number, and so
forth.




The format for defining a structure is
struct Tag {
Members
};
Where Tag is the name of the entire type of structure and Members are the variables within the struct.
To actually create a single structure the syntax is
struct Tag name_of_single_structure;
To access a variable of the structure it goes
name_of_single_structure.name_of_variable;
For example:
struct example {
int x;
};
struct example an_example; /* Treating it like a normal variable type
except with the addition of struct*/
an_example.x = 33; /*How to access its members */
Here is an example program:
struct database {
int id_number;
int age;
float salary;
};

int main()
{
struct database employee; /* There is now an employee variable that has
modifiable variables inside it.*/
employee.age = 22;
employee.id_number = 1;
employee.salary = 12000.21;
}
The struct database declares that it has three variables in it, age, id_number, and salary. You can use
database like a variable type like int. You can create an employee with the database type as I did
above. Then, to modify it you call everything with the 'employee.' in front of it. You can also return
structures from functions by defining their return type as a structure type. For instance:
struct database fn();
I will talk only a little bit about unions as well. Unions are like structures except that all the variables
share the same memory. When a union is declared the compiler allocates enough memory for the
largest data-type in the union. It's like a giant storage chest where you can store one large item, or a
small item, but never the both at the same time.

The '.' operator is used to access different variables inside a union also.

As a final note, if you wish to have a pointer to a structure, to actually access the information stored
inside the structure that is pointed to, you use the -> operator in place of the . operator. All points
about pointers still apply.

A quick example:
#include <stdio.h>

struct xampl {
int x;
};

int main()
{
struct xampl structure;
struct xampl *ptr;

structure.x = 12;
ptr = &structure; /* Yes, you need the & when dealing with
structures and using pointers to them*/
printf( "%d\n", ptr->x ); /* The -> acts somewhat like the * when
does when it is used with pointers
It says, get whatever is at that memory
address Not "get what that memory address
is"*/
getchar();
}

Lesson 8: Arrays in C

By Alex Allain
Arrays are useful critters that often show up when it would be convenient to have one name for a
group of variables of the same type that can be accessed by a numerical index. For example, a tic-tac-
toe board can be held in an array and each element of the tic-tac-toe board can easily be accessed by
its position (the upper left might be position 0 and the lower right position 8). At heart, arrays are
essentially a way to store many values under the same name. You can make an array out of any data-
type including structures and classes.

One way to visualize an array is like this:
[][][][][][]
Each of the bracket pairs is a slot in the array, and you can store information in slot--the information
stored in the array is called an element of the array. It is very much as though you have a group of
variables lined up side by side.




Let's look at the syntax for declaring an array.
int examplearray[100]; /* This declares an array */
This would make an integer array with 100 slots (the places in which values of an array are stored).
To access a specific part element of the array, you merely put the array name and, in brackets, an
index number. This corresponds to a specific element of the array. The one trick is that the first index
number, and thus the first element, is zero, and the last is the number of elements minus one. The
indices for a 100 element array range from 0 to 99. Be careful not to "walk off the end" of the array by
trying to access element 100!

What can you do with this simple knowledge? Let's say you want to store a string, because C has no
built-in datatype for strings, you can make an array of characters.

For example:
char astring[100];
will allow you to declare a char array of 100 elements, or slots. Then you can receive input into it
from the user, and when the user types in a string, it will go in the array, the first character of the
string will be at position 0, the second character at position 1, and so forth. It is relatively easy to work
with strings in this way because it allows support for any size string you can imagine all stored in a
single variable with each element in the string stored in an adjacent location--think about how hard it
would be to store nearly arbitrary sized strings using simple variables that only store one value. Since
we can write loops that increment integers, it's very easy to scan through a string:
char astring[10];
int i = 0;
/* Using scanf isn't really the best way to do this; we'll talk about that
in the next tutorial, on strings */
scanf( "%s", astring );
for ( i = 0; i < 10; ++i )
{
if ( astring[i] == 'a' )
{
printf( "You entered an a!\n" );
}
}
Let's look at something new here: the scanf function call is a tad different from what we've seen
before. First of all, the format string is '%s' instead of '%d'; this just tells scanf to read in a string
instead of an integer. Second, we don't use the ampersand! It turns out that when we pass arrays into
functions, the compiler automatically converts the array into a pointer to the first element of the array.
In short, the array without any brackets will act like a pointer. So we just pass the array directly into
scanf without using the ampersand and it works perfectly.

Also, notice that to access the element of the array, we just use the brackets and put in the index
whose value interests us; in this case, we go from 0 to 9, checking each element to see if it's equal to
the character a. Note that some of these values may actually be uninitialized since the user might not
input a string that fills the whole array--we'll look into how strings are handled in more detail in the
next tutorial; for now, the key is simply to understand the power of accessing the array using a
numerical index. Imagine how you would write that if you didn't have access to arrays! Oh boy.

Multidimensional arrays are arrays that have more than one index: instead of being just a single line
of slots, multidimensional arrays can be thought of as having values that spread across two or more
dimensions. Here's an easy way to visualize a two-dimensional array:
[][][][][]
[][][][][]
[][][][][]
[][][][][]
[][][][][]
The syntax used to actually declare a two dimensional array is almost the same as that used for
declaring a one-dimensional array, except that you include a set of brackets for each dimension, and
include the size of the dimension. For example, here is an array that is large enough to hold a standard
checkers board, with 8 rows and 8 columns:
int two_dimensional_array[8][8];
You can easily use this to store information about some kind of game or to write something like tic-
tac-toe. To access it, all you need are two variables, one that goes in the first slot and one that goes in
the second slot. You can make three dimensional, four dimensional, or even higher dimensional
arrays, though past three dimensions, it becomes quite hard to visualize.

Setting the value of an array element is as easy as accessing the element and performing an
assignment. For instance,
<arrayname>[<arrayindexnumber>] = <value>
for instance,
/* set the first element of my_first to be the letter c */
my_string[0] = 'c';
or, for two dimensional arrays
<arrayname>[<arrayindexnumber1>][<arrayindexnumber2>] = <whatever>;
Let me note again that you should never attempt to write data past the last element of the array, such
as when you have a 10 element array, and you try to write to the [10] element. The memory for the
array that was allocated for it will only be ten locations in memory, (the elements 0 through 9) but the
next location could be anything. Writing to random memory could cause unpredictable effects--for
example you might end up writing to the video buffer and change the video display, or you might
write to memory being used by an open document and altering its contents. Usually, the operating
system will not allow this kind of reckless behavior and will crash the program if it tries to write to
unallocated memory.

You will find lots of useful things to do with arrays, from storing information about certain things
under one name, to making games like tic-tac-toe. We've already seen one example of using loops to
access arrays; here is another, more interesting, example!
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
int x;
int y;
int array[8][8]; /* Declares an array like a chessboard */

for ( x = 0; x < 8; x++ ) {
for ( y = 0; y < 8; y++ )
array[x][y] = x * y; /* Set each element to a value */
}
printf( "Array Indices:\n" );
for ( x = 0; x < 8;x++ ) {
for ( y = 0; y < 8; y++ )
{
printf( "[%d][%d]=%d", x, y, array[x][y] );
}
printf( "\n" );
}
getchar();
}


Just to touch upon a final point made briefly above: arrays don't require a reference operator (the
ampersand) when you want to have a pointer to them. For example:
char *ptr;
char str[40];
ptr = str; /* Gives the memory address without a reference operator(&) */
As opposed to
int *ptr;
int num;
ptr = &num; /* Requires & to give the memory address to the ptr */
The fact that arrays can act just like pointers can cause a great deal of confusion. For more
information please see ourFrequently Asked Questions.
Lesson 9: C Strings

By Alex Allain
This lesson will discuss C-style strings, which you may have already seen in the array tutorial. In fact,
C-style strings are really arrays of chars with a little bit of special sauce to indicate where the string
ends. This tutorial will cover some of the tools available for working with strings--things like copying
them, concatenating them, and getting their length.
What is a String?
Note that along with C-style strings, which are arrays, there are also string literals, such as "this". In
reality, both of these string types are merely just collections of characters sitting next to each other in
memory. The only difference is that you cannot modify string literals, whereas you can modify arrays.
Functions that take a C-style string will be just as happy to accept string literals unless they modify
the string (in which case your program will crash). Some things that might look like strings are not
strings; in particular, a character enclosed in single quotes, like this, 'a', is not a string. It's a single
character, which can be assigned to a specific location in a string, but which cannot be treated as a
string. (Remember how arrays act like pointers when passed into functions? Characters don't, so if
you pass a single character into a function, it won't work; the function is expecting a char*, not a
char.)




To recap: strings are arrays of chars. String literals are words surrounded by double quotation marks.
"This is a static string"
Remember that special sauce mentioned above? Well, it turns out that C-style strings are always
terminated with a null character, literally a '\0' character (with the value of 0), so to declare a string of
49 letters, you need to account for it by adding an extra character, so you would want to say:
char string[50];
This would declare a string with a length of 50 characters. Do not forget that arrays begin at zero, not
1 for the index number. In addition, we've accounted for the extra with a null character, literally a '\0'
character. It's important to remember that there will be an extra character on the end on a string, just
like there is always a period at the end of a sentence. Since this string terminator is unprintable, it is
not counted as a letter, but it still takes up a space. Technically, in a fifty char array you could only
hold 49 letters and one null character at the end to terminate the string.

Note that something like
char *my_string;
can also be used as a string. If you have read the tutorial on pointers, you can do something such as:
arry = malloc( sizeof(*arry) * 256 );
which allows you to access arry just as if it were an array. To free the memory you allocated, just use
free:

For example:
free ( arry );
Using Strings
Strings are useful for holding all types of long input. If you want the user to input his or her name, you
must use a string. Using scanf() to input a string works, but it will terminate the string after it reads
the first space, and moreover, because scanf doesn't know how big the array is, it can lead to "buffer
overflows" when the user inputs a string that is longer than the size of the string (which acts as an
input "buffer").

There are several approaches to handling this problem, but probably the simplest and safest is to use
the fgets function, which is declared in stdio.h.

The prototype for the fgets function is:
char *fgets (char *str, int size, FILE* file);
There are a few new things here. First of all, let's clear up the questions about that funky FILE*
pointer. The reason this exists is because fgets is supposed to be able to read from any file on disk, not
just from the user's keyboard (or other "standard input" device). For the time being, whenever we call
fgets, we'll just pass in a variable called stdin, defined in stdio.h, which refers to "standard input".
This effectively tells the program to read from the keyboard. The other two arguments to fgets, str and
size, are simply the place to store the data read from the input and the size of the char*, str. Finally,
fgets returns str whenever it successfully read from the input.

When fgets actually reads input from the user, it will read up to size - 1 characters and then place the
null terminator after the last character it read. fgets will read input until it either has no more room to
store the data or until the user hits enter. Notice that fgets may fill up the entire space allocated for str,
but it will never return a non-null terminated string to you.

Let's look at an example of using fgets, and then we'll talk about some pitfalls to watch out for.

For a example:
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
/* A nice long string */
char string[256];

printf( "Please enter a long string: " );

/* notice stdin being passed in */
fgets ( string, 256, stdin );

printf( "You entered a very long string, %s", string );

getchar();
}
Remember that you are actually passing the address of the array when you pass string because arrays
do not require an address operator (&) to be used to pass their addresses, so the values in the array
string are modified.

The one thing to watch out for when using fgets is that it will include the newline character ('\n') when
it reads input unless there isn't room in the string to store it. This means that you may need to
manually remove the input. One way to do this would be to search the string for a newline and then
replace it with the null terminator. What would this look like? See if you can figure out a way to do it
before looking below:
char input[256];
int i;

fgets( input, 256, stdin );

for ( i = 0; i < 256; i++ )
{
if ( input[i] == '\n' )
{
input[i] = '\0';
break;
}
}

Here, we just loop through the input until we come to a newline, and when we do, we replace it with
the null terminator. Notice that if the input is less than 256 characters long, the user must have hit
enter, which would have included the newline character in the string! (By the way, aside from this
example, there are other approaches to solving this problem that use functions from string.h.)
Manipulating C strings using string.h
string.h is a header file that contains many functions for manipulating strings. One of these is the
string comparison function.
int strcmp ( const char *s1, const char *s2 );
strcmp will accept two strings. It will return an integer. This integer will either be:
Negative if s1 is less than s2.
Zero if s1 and s2 are equal.
Positive if s1 is greater than s2.
Strcmp performs a case sensitive comparison; if the strings are the same except for a difference in
cAse, then they're countered as being different. Strcmp also passes the address of the character array
to the function to allow it to be accessed.
char *strcat ( char *dest, const char *src );
strcat is short for "string concatenate"; concatenate is a fancy word that means to add to the end, or
append. It adds the second string to the first string. It returns a pointer to the concatenated string.
Beware this function; it assumes that dest is large enough to hold the entire contents of src as well as
its own contents.
char *strcpy ( char *dest, const char *src );
strcpy is short for string copy, which means it copies the entire contents of src into dest. The contents
of dest after strcpy will be exactly the same as src such that strcmp ( dest, src ) will return 0.
size_t strlen ( const char *s );
strlen will return the length of a string, minus the terminating character ('\0'). The size_t is nothing to
worry about. Just treat it as an integer that cannot be negative, which is what it actually is. (The type
size_t is just a way to indicate that the value is intended for use as a size of something.)

Here is a small program using many of the previously described functions:
#include <stdio.h> /* stdin, printf, and fgets */
#include <string.h> /* for all the new-fangled string functions */

/* this function is designed to remove the newline from the end of a string
entered using fgets. Note that since we make this into its own function, we
could easily choose a better technique for removing the newline. Aren't
functions great? */
void strip_newline( char *str, int size )
{
int i;

/* remove the null terminator */
for ( i = 0; i < size; ++i )
{
if ( str[i] == '\n' )
{
str[i] = '\0';

/* we're done, so just exit the function by returning */
return;
}
}
/* if we get all the way to here, there must not have been a newline! */
}

int main()
{
char name[50];
char lastname[50];
char fullname[100]; /* Big enough to hold both name and lastname */

printf( "Please enter your name: " );
fgets( name, 50, stdin );

/* see definition above */
strip_newline( name, 50 );

/* strcmp returns zero when the two strings are equal */
if ( strcmp ( name, "Alex" ) == 0 )
{
printf( "That's my name too.\n" );
}
else
{
printf( "That's not my name.\n" );
}
// Find the length of your name
printf( "Your name is %d letters long", strlen ( name ) );
printf( "Enter your last name: " );
fgets( lastname, 50, stdin );
strip_newline( lastname, 50 );
fullname[0] = '\0';
/* strcat will look for the \0 and add the second string starting at
that location */
strcat( fullname, name ); /* Copy name into full name */
strcat( fullname, " " ); /* Separate the names by a space */
strcat( fullname, lastname ); /* Copy lastname onto the end of fullname */
printf( "Your full name is %s\n",fullname );

getchar();

return 0;
}
Safe Programming
The above string functions all rely on the existence of a null terminator at the end of a string. This
isn't always a safe bet. Moreover, some of them, noticeably strcat, rely on the fact that the destination
string can hold the entire string being appended onto the end. Although it might seem like you'll never
make that sort of mistake, historically, problems based on accidentally writing off the end of an array
in a function like strcat, have been a major problem.

Fortunately, in their infinite wisdom, the designers of C have included functions designed to help you
avoid these issues. Similar to the way that fgets takes the maximum number of characters that fit into
the buffer, there are string functions that take an additional argument to indicate the length of the
destination buffer. For instance, the strcpy function has an analogous strncpy function
char *strncpy ( char *dest, const char *src, size_t len );
which will only copy len bytes from src to dest (len should be less than the size of dest or the write
could still go beyond the bounds of the array). Unfortunately, strncpy can lead to one niggling issue: it
doesn't guarantee that dest will have a null terminator attached to it (this might happen if the string src
is longer than dest). You can avoid this problem by using strlen to get the length of src and make sure
it will fit in dest. Of course, if you were going to do that, then you probably don't need strncpy in the
first place, right? Wrong. Now it forces you to pay attention to this issue, which is a big part of the
battle.
C File I/O and Binary File I/O

By Alex Allain
In this tutorial, you'll learn how to do file IO, text and binary, in C, using fopen, fwrite,
and fread,fprintf, fscanf, fgetc and fputc.
FILE *
For C File I/O you need to use a FILE pointer, which will let the program keep track of the file being
accessed. (You can think of it as the memory address of the file or the location of the file).


For example:
FILE *fp;
fopen
To open a file you need to use the fopen function, which returns a FILE pointer. Once you've opened
a file, you can use the FILE pointer to let the compiler perform input and output functions on the file.

FILE *fopen(const char *filename, const char *mode);
In the filename, if you use a string literal as the argument, you need to remember to use double
backslashes rather than a single backslash as you otherwise risk an escape character such as \t. Using
double backslashes \\ escapes the \ key, so the string works as it is expected. Your users, of course, do
not need to do this! It's just the way quoted strings are handled in C and C++.
fopen modes
The allowed modes for fopen are as follows:
r - open for reading
w - open for writing (file need not exist)
a - open for appending (file need not exist)
r+ - open for reading and writing, start at beginning
w+ - open for reading and writing (overwrite file)
a+ - open for reading and writing (append if file exists)
Note that it's possible for fopen to fail even if your program is perfectly correct: you might try to open
a file specified by the user, and that file might not exist (or it might be write-protected). In those
cases, fopen will return 0, the NULL pointer.

Here's a simple example of using fopen:

FILE *fp;
fp=fopen("c:\\test.txt", "r");
This code will open test.txt for reading in text mode. To open a file in a binary mode you must add a b
to the end of the mode string; for example, "rb" (for the reading and writing modes, you can add the b
either after the plus sign - "r+b" - or before - "rb+")
fclose
When you're done working with a file, you should close it using the function

int fclose(FILE *a_file);
fclose returns zero if the file is closed successfully.

An example of fclose is
fclose(fp);
Reading and writing with fprintf, fscanf fputc, and fgetc
To work with text input and output, you use fprintf and fscanf, both of which are similar to their
friends printf and scanfexcept that you must pass the FILE pointer as first argument. For example:

FILE *fp;
fp=fopen("c:\\test.txt", "w");
fprintf(fp, "Testing...\n");
It is also possible to read (or write) a single character at a time--this can be useful if you wish to
perform character-by-character input (for instance, if you need to keep track of every piece of
punctuation in a file it would make more sense to read in a single character than to read in a string at a
time.) The fgetc function, which takes a file pointer, and returns an int, will let you read a single
character from a file:
int fgetc (FILE *fp);
Notice that fgetc returns an int. What this actually means is that when it reads a normal character in
the file, it will return a value suitable for storing in an unsigned char (basically, a number in the range
0 to 255). On the other hand, when you're at the very end of the file, you can't get a character value--in
this case, fgetc will return "EOF", which is a constant that indicates that you've reached the end of the
file. To see a full example using fgetc in practice, take a look at the examplehere.

The fputc function allows you to write a character at a time--you might find this useful if you wanted
to copy a file character by character. It looks like this:
int fputc( int c, FILE *fp );
Note that the first argument should be in the range of an unsigned char so that it is a valid character.
The second argument is the file to write to. On success, fputc will return the value c, and on failure, it
will return EOF.
Binary file I/O - fread and fwrite
For binary File I/O you use fread and fwrite.

The declarations for each are similar:
size_t fread(void *ptr, size_t size_of_elements, size_t number_of_elements, FILE *a_file);

size_t fwrite(const void *ptr, size_t size_of_elements, size_t number_of_elements, FILE *a_file);
Both of these functions deal with blocks of memories - usually arrays. Because they accept pointers,
you can also use these functions with other data structures; you can even write structs to a file or a
read struct into memory.

Let's look at one function to see how the notation works.

fread takes four arguments. Don't be confused by the declaration of a void *ptr; void means that it is a
pointer that can be used for any type variable. The first argument is the name of the array or the
address of the structure you want to write to the file. The second argument is the size of each element
of the array; it is in bytes. For example, if you have an array of characters, you would want to read it
in one byte chunks, so size_of_elements is one. You can use the sizeof operator to get the size of the
various datatypes; for example, if you have a variable int x; you can get the size of x with sizeof(x);.
This usage works even for structs or arrays. E.g., if you have a variable of a struct type with the name
a_struct, you can use sizeof(a_struct) to find out how much memory it is taking up.

e.g.,

sizeof(int);

The third argument is simply how many elements you want to read or write; for example, if you pass
a 100 element array, you want to read no more than 100 elements, so you pass in 100.

The final argument is simply the file pointer we've been using. When fread is used, after being passed
an array, fread will read from the file until it has filled the array, and it will return the number of
elements actually read. If the file, for example, is only 30 bytes, but you try to read 100 bytes, it will
return that it read 30 bytes. To check to ensure the end of file was reached, use the feof function,
which accepts a FILE pointer and returns true if the end of the file has been reached.

fwrite is similar in usage, except instead of reading into the memory you write from memory into a
file.

For example,
FILE *fp;
fp=fopen("c:\\test.bin", "wb");
char x[10]="ABCDEFGHIJ";
fwrite(x, sizeof(x[0]), sizeof(x)/sizeof(x[0]), fp);

Example programs
#include<stdio.h>

int main()
{
int a, b, c;

printf("Enter two numbers to add\n");
scanf("%d%d",&a,&b);

c = a + b;

printf("Sum of entered numbers = %d\n",c);

return 0;
}

Addition without using third variable
#include<stdio.h>

main()
{
int a = 1, b = 2;

/* Storing result of addition in variable a */

a = a + b;

/* Not recommended because original value of a is lost
* and you may be using it somewhere in code considering it
* as it was entered by the user.
*/

printf("Sum of a and b = %d\n", a);

return 0;
}
C program to add two numbers repeatedly
#include<stdio.h>

main()
{
int a, b, c;
char ch;

while(1)
{
printf("Enter values of a and b\n");
scanf("%d%d",&a,&b);

c = a + b;

printf("a + b = %d\n", c);

printf("Do you wish to add more numbers(y/n)\n");
scanf(" %c",&ch);

if ( ch == 'y' || ch == 'Y' )
continue;
else
break;
}

return 0;
}

Adding numbers in c using function
#include<stdio.h>

long addition(long, long);

main()
{
long first, second, sum;

scanf("%ld%ld", &first, &second);

sum = addition(first, second);

printf("%ld\n", sum);

return 0;
}

long addition(long a, long b)
{
long result;

result = a + b;

return result;
}
We have used long data type as it can handle large numbers, if you want to add still larger
numbers which doesn't fit in long range then use array, string or other data structure.
c program to check odd or even: We will determine whether a number is odd or even by using
different methods all are provided with a code in c language. As you have study in mathematics
that in decimal number system even numbers are divisible by 2 while odd are not so we may use
modulus operator(%) which returns remainder, For example 4%3 gives 1 ( remainder when four
is divided by three). Even numbers are of the form 2*p and odd are of the form (2*p+1) where p
is is an integer.
#include<stdio.h>

main()
{
int n;

printf("Enter an integer\n");
scanf("%d",&n);

if ( n%2 == 0 )
printf("Even\n");
else
printf("Odd\n");

return 0;
}

C program to check odd or even using bitwise
operator
#include<stdio.h>

main()
{
int n;

printf("Enter an integer\n");
scanf("%d",&n);

if ( n & 1 == 1 )
printf("Odd\n");
else
printf("Even\n");

return 0;
}

Find odd or even using conditional operator
#include<stdio.h>

main()
{
int n;

printf("Input an integer\n");
scanf("%d",&n);

n%2 == 0 ? printf("Even\n") : printf("Odd\n");

return 0;
}

C program to check odd or even without using
bitwise or modulus operator
#include<stdio.h>

main()
{
int n;

printf("Enter an integer\n");
scanf("%d",&n);

if ( (n/2)*2 == n )
printf("Even\n");
else
printf("Odd\n");

return 0;
}
In c programming language when we divide two integers we get an integer result, For example
the result of 7/3 will be 2.So we can take advantage of this and may use it to find whether the
number is odd or even. Consider an integer n we can first divide by 2 and then multiply it by 2 if
the result is the original number then the number is even otherwise the number is odd. For
example 11/2 = 5, 5*2 = 10 ( which is not equal to eleven), now consider 12/2 = 6 and 6 *2 = 12 (
same as original number). These are some logic which may help you in finding if a number is odd
or not.

C program to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication
and division
C program to perform basic arithmetic operations which are addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division of two numbers. Numbers are assumed to be integers and will be
entered by the user.
C programming code
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
int first, second, add, subtract, multiply;
float divide;

printf("Enter two integers\n");
scanf("%d%d", &first, &second);

add = first + second;
subtract = first - second;
multiply = first * second;
divide = first / (float)second; //typecasting

printf("Sum = %d\n",add);
printf("Difference = %d\n",subtract);
printf("Multiplication = %d\n",multiply);
printf("Division = %.2f\n",divide);

return 0;
}
In c language when we divide two integers we get integer result for example 5/2 evaluates to 2.
As a general rule integer/integer = integer and float/integer = float or integer/float = float. So we
convert denominator to float in our program, you may also write float in numerator. This explicit
conversion is known as typecasting.
C program to check whether input alphabet is a vowel or not
This code checks whether an input alphabet is a vowel or not. Both lower-case and upper-case are
checked.
C programming code
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
char ch;

printf("Enter a character\n");
scanf("%c", &ch);

if (ch == 'a' || ch == 'A' || ch == 'e' || ch == 'E' || ch == 'i' || ch
== 'I' || ch =='o' || ch=='O' || ch == 'u' || ch == 'U')
printf("%c is a vowel.\n", ch);
else
printf("%c is not a vowel.\n", ch);

return 0;
}

Check vowel using switch statement
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
char ch;

printf("Input a character\n");
scanf("%c", &ch);

switch(ch)
{
case 'a':
case 'A':
case 'e':
case 'E':
case 'i':
case 'I':
case 'o':
case 'O':
case 'u':
case 'U':
printf("%c is a vowel.\n", ch);
break;
default:
printf("%c is not a vowel.\n", ch);
}

return 0;
}

Function to check vowel
int check_vowel(char a)
{
if (a >= 'A' && a <= 'Z')
a = a + 'a' - 'A'; /* Converting to lower case or use a = a + 32
*/

if (a == 'a' || a == 'e' || a == 'i' || a == 'o' || a == 'u')
return 1;

return 0;
}

conio.h header used in c programming contains functions for console input/output. Some of the
most commonly used functions of conio.h are clrscr, getch, getche, kbhit etc. Functions of conio.h
can be used to clear screen, change color of text and background, move text, check if a key is
pressed or not and many more. conio.h file is provided by Borland turbo c compiler and GCC
compiler doesn't support it. Beginner c/c++ programmers and some books use this file but it is
not recommended to use it in your software/application. To write portable c language programs
do not use this file. There are also many other header files similar to this one.
Conio.h functions
clrscr, delline, getch, getche, gotoxy, kbhit, wherex, wherey, textcolor, textbackground.
clrscr in c
clrscr function clears the screen amd move the cursor to upper left hand corner of screen.
C programming code for clrscr
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

main()
{
printf("Press any key to clear the screen.\n");

getch();

clrscr();

printf("This appears after clearing the screen.\n");
printf("Press any key to exit...\n");

getch();
return 0;
}
In the above program first we display the message "Press any key to clear the screen." using printf and
then ask the user to press a key. When user will press a key screen will be cleared and another message
will be printed. clrscr function does not work in Dev C++ compiler. Also do not use clrscr in graphics
mode instead use cleardevice.
delline
delline function deletes the line containing the cursor and move all lines below it one line up.
C programming code for delline
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

main()
{
printf("This line will be deleted when you press a key.");

getch();
delline();

printf("Line deleted successfully.");

getch();
return 0;
}

getch in c
getch in c language: getch function prompts the user to press a character and that character is not
printed on screen, getch header file is conio.h.
C programming code for getch
/* getch in c example */
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

main()
{
printf("Waiting for a character to be pressed from the keyboard to
exit.\n");

getch();
return 0;
}
When you will run this program, the program will exit only when you press a character, note that we
are talking about a character so try pressing numlock, shift key etc (program will not exit if you press
these keys) as these are not characters. Also try the above program by removing getch(), in this case
program will exit without waiting for a character being pressed from keyboard.
getche in c
getche function prompts the user to press a character and that character is printed on screen.
C code for getche
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

main()
{
printf("Waiting for a character to be pressed from the keyboard to
exit.");

getche();
return 0;
}
Run this program and press a character. Then view the user screen (Alt+F5) if using turbo c. You will
find the character printed on the screen if you pressed a printable character. Try pressing enter or tab
key (non printable) characters also.
gotoxy in c
gotoxy in c: gotoxy function places cursor at a desired location on screen i.e. we can change cursor
position using gotoxy function.
Declaration : void gotoxy( int x, int y);
where (x, y) is the position where we want to place the cursor.
C programming code for gotoxy
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

main()
{
int x, y;

x = 10;
y = 10;

gotoxy(x, y);

printf("C program to change cursor position.");

getch();
return 0;
}

kbhit in c
kbhit in c: kbhit function is used to determine if a key has been pressed or not. To use kbhit function
in your program you should include the header file "conio.h". If a key has been pressed then it returns
a non zero value otherwise returns zero.
Declaration : int kbhit();
C programming code for kbhit
#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>

main()
{
while (!kbhit())
printf("You haven't pressed a key.\n");

return 0;
}
As long as in the above program user doesn't presses a key kbhit() return zero and (!0) i.e. 1 the
condition in while loop is true and "You haven't pressed a key." will be printed again and again. As a
key is pressed from the keyboard the condition in while loop become false as now kbhit() will return a
non-zero value and ( !(non-zero) = 0), so the control will come out of the while loop.
wherex in c
wherex function return current horizontal cursor position.
Declaration :- int wherex();
C programming code for wherex
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

main()
{
int x;

printf("Hello");

x = wherex();

printf("Horizontal cursor position from where this text appears =
%d\n",x);

getch();
return 0;
}

textcolor in c
textcolor function is used to change the color of drawing text in c programs.
Declaration :- void textcolor(int color);
where color is an integer variable. For example 0 means BLACK color, 1 means BLUE, 2 means
GREEN and soon. You can also use write appropriate color instead of integer. For example you can
write textcolor(YELLOW); to change text color to YELLOW. But use colors in capital letters only.
C programming code to change text color
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

main()
{
textcolor(RED);
cprintf("C programming");

getch();
return 0;
}

C programming code for blinking text
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

main()
{
textcolor(MAGENTA+BLINK);
cprintf("C programming");

getch();
return 0;
}
Note that we have used cprintf function instead of printf. This is because cprintf send formatted
output to text window on screen and printf sends it to stdin.
textbackground in c
textbackground function is used to change of current background color in text mode. See
availablecolors.
Declaration : void textbackground(int color);
C programming code for textbackground
#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

main()
{
textbackground(RED);

cprintf("C program to change background color.");

getch();
return 0;
}
math.h
math.h contains functions to perform mathematical operations often required in c programs such as
calculating absolute value of a number, calculating logarithms and using trigonometric functions to
calculate sine, cosine of an angle.
math.h functions
abs, ceil, cos, floor, log, log10, pow, pow10, sin, sqrt.
abs c - math.h
abs is not a function but is a macro and is used for calculating absolute value of a number.
C programming code for abs
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

int main()
{
int n, result;

printf("Enter an integer to calculate it's absolute value\n");
scanf("%d", &n);

result = abs(n);

printf("Absolute value of %d = %d\n", n, result);

return 0;
}

ceil in c - math.h
Ceil function is used to round up a number i.e. it returns the smallest number which is greater than
argument passed to it.
Declaration: double ceil(double);
C programming code
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

int main()
{
double n, result;

printf("Enter a number to round it up\n");
scanf("%lf", &n);

result = ceil(n);

printf("Original number = %.2lf\n", n);
printf("Number rounded up = %.2lf\n", result);

return 0;
}

cos in c - math.h
Cos function returns cosine of an angle(in radian).
1 radian = 57.2958(approximately).
Declaration: double cos(double);
C programming code
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

int main()
{
double result, x = 1.0471;

result = cos(x);

printf("cos(%.4lf) = %.2lf\n", x, result);

return 0;
}

floor function
Floor function returns the greatest integer not greater than x. For example if the input is 2.25 then
output will be 2.00.
Declaration :- double floor(double x);
C programming code for floor
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

int main()
{
double n, result;

printf("Enter a number to round it down\n");
scanf("%lf", &n);

result = floor(n);

printf("Original number = %.2lf\n", n);
printf("Number rounded down = %.2lf\n", result);

return 0;
}

log function
log function returns natural logarithm (base is e) of a number, where e is the exponential number.
Declaration :- double log(double);
C programming code for log
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

int main()
{
double n, result;

printf("Enter a number to calculate it's natural log (base is e)\n");
scanf("%lf", &n);

result = log(n);

printf("Natural log of %.2lf = %lf\n", n, result);

return 0;
}
log10
log10 function returns common logarithm (base is 10) of a number.
Declaration :- double log10(double number);
C programming code for log10
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

int main()
{
double n, result;

printf("Enter a number to calculate it's log(base is 10)\n");
scanf("%lf", &n);

result = log10(n);

printf("Common log of %.2lf = %.2lf\n", n, result);

return 0;
}

pow function
pow function returns x raise to the power y where x and y are variables of double data type.
Declaration :- double pow(double, double);
C programming code for pow
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

int main()
{
double c, d, result;

printf("Enter c and d to calculate c^d\n");
scanf("%lf%lf", &c, &d);

result = pow(c, d);

printf("%.2lf raised to %.2lf = %.2lf\n", c, d, result);

return 0;
}

pow10 function
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

int main()
{
int x = 5;
double result;

result = pow10(x);

printf("Ten raised to %d is %lf\n", x, result);

return 0;
}

sin function in c
Sin function returns sine of an angle(in radian).
Declaration: double sin(double);
C programming code
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

int main()
{
double result, x = M_PI/6;

result = sin(x);

printf("The sin(%lf) = %.2lf\n", x, result);

return 0;
}

sqrt function
sqrt function returns square root of a number.
Declaration :- double sqrt(double);
C programming code for sqrt
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

int main()
{

double n, result;

printf("Enter a number to calculate it's square root\n");
scanf("%lf", &n);

result = sqrt(n);

printf("Square root of %.2lf = %.2lf\n", n, result);

return 0;
}

3 Macros
A macro is a fragment of code which has been given a name. Whenever the name
is used, it is replaced by the contents of the macro. There are two kinds of macros.
They differ mostly in what they look like when they are used. Object-like macros
resemble data objects when used, function-like macros resemble function calls.
You may define any valid identifier as a macro, even if it is a C keyword. The
preprocessor does not know anything about keywords. This can be useful if you
wish to hide a keyword such as constfrom an older compiler that does not
understand it. However, the preprocessor operator defined (see Defined) can never
be defined as a macro, and C++'s named operators (see C++ Named Operators)
cannot be macros when you are compiling C++.
2 Header Files
A header file is a file containing C declarations and macro definitions (see Macros)
to be shared between several source files. You request the use of a header file in
your program by including it, with the C preprocessing directive #include.
Header files serve two purposes.
System header files declare the interfaces to parts of the operating system.
You include them in your program to supply the definitions and
declarations you need to invoke system calls and libraries.
Your own header files contain declarations for interfaces between the
source files of your program. Each time you have a group of related
declarations and macro definitions all or most of which are needed in
several different source files, it is a good idea to create a header file for
them.
Including a header file produces the same results as copying the header file into
each source file that needs it. Such copying would be time-consuming and error-
prone. With a header file, the related declarations appear in only one place. If they
need to be changed, they can be changed in one place, and programs that include
the header file will automatically use the new version when next recompiled. The
header file eliminates the labor of finding and changing all the copies as well as the
risk that a failure to find one copy will result in inconsistencies within a program.
In C, the usual convention is to give header files names that end with .h. It is most
portable to use only letters, digits, dashes, and underscores in header file names,
and at most one dot.

C source code
C source code examples: Given below is a list of c projects and c source code for games,
applications all of them are provided for free with complete source code and executable files.
Some of these c language codes or c programs uses graphics programming.
MATLAB program to find DFT and IDFT using matlab functions
Program Code
%DFT and IDFT using matlab functions
clc;
close all;
clear all;
x=input('Enter the sequence x(n)=');
N=input('Enter the length of the DFT N=');
X=fft(x)/N;
n=0:length(X)-1;
subplot(311);
stem(n,x);
title('Input Sequence');
subplot(323);
stem(n,X);
title('DFT');
subplot(324);
stem(n,abs(X));
title('Magnitude spectrum');
subplot(325);
stem(n,angle(X));
title('Phase spectrum');
xr=N*ifft(X);
subplot(326);
stem(n,abs(xr));
title('IDFT');

Example of Output
Enter the sequence x(n)= [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9]

Enter the length of the DFT N= 6


meanIm=mean([image1(:) ; image2(:) ; ... ]);
image1 = image1 - meanIm;
image2 = image2 - meanIm;
I suppose images are in the same size, if you have for example 3 images the following code would do what
you what:
images = image1 + image + image3;
meanOfImages = images ./ 3;
image1 = image1 - meanOfImages;
image2 = image2 - meanOfImages;
image3 = image3 - meanOfImages;
The idea is to sum all the images then divide the resulting matrix element-wise by number of images and
that would be the mean of them, then subtract this matrix from each image matrix.