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C - Program Structure

The document discusses the basic structure of a C program. It provides a simple "Hello World" example program that consists of preprocessor commands, functions, variables, statements, expressions, and comments. The example program includes the #include preprocessor command to include the stdio.h header file, contains a main function where execution begins, uses a printf statement to display output, and returns 0 at the end of the main function. The document also outlines the steps to compile and run the program using the gcc compiler.

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Marcelo Luna
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33 views

C - Program Structure

The document discusses the basic structure of a C program. It provides a simple "Hello World" example program that consists of preprocessor commands, functions, variables, statements, expressions, and comments. The example program includes the #include preprocessor command to include the stdio.h header file, contains a main function where execution begins, uses a printf statement to display output, and returns 0 at the end of the main function. The document also outlines the steps to compile and run the program using the gcc compiler.

Uploaded by

Marcelo Luna
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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C - Program Structure https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cprogramming/c_program_...

C - Program Structure

Before we study the basic building blocks of the C programming language, let us look at a
bare minimum C program structure so that we can take it as a reference in the upcoming
chapters.

Hello World Example


A C program basically consists of the following parts −

• Preprocessor Commands
• Functions
• Variables
• Statements & Expressions
• Comments
Let us look at a simple code that would print the words "Hello World" −

Live Demo
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
/* my first program in C */
printf("Hello, World! \n");

return 0;
}

Let us take a look at the various parts of the above program −

• The first line of the program #include <stdio.h> is a preprocessor command, which
tells a C compiler to include stdio.h file before going to actual compilation.

• The next line int main() is the main function where the program execution begins.

• The next line /*...*/ will be ignored by the compiler and it has been put to add
additional comments in the program. So such lines are called comments in the
program.

• The next line printf(...) is another function available in C which causes the message
"Hello, World!" to be displayed on the screen.

• The next line return 0; terminates the main() function and returns the value 0.

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C - Program Structure https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cprogramming/c_program_...

Compile and Execute C Program


Let us see how to save the source code in a file, and how to compile and run it. Following are
the simple steps −

• Open a text editor and add the above-mentioned code.

• Save the file as hello.c

• Open a command prompt and go to the directory where you have saved the file.

• Type gcc hello.c and press enter to compile your code.

• If there are no errors in your code, the command prompt will take you to the next line
and would generate a.out executable file.

• Now, type a.out to execute your program.

• You will see the output "Hello World" printed on the screen.

$ gcc hello.c
$ ./a.out
Hello, World!

Make sure the gcc compiler is in your path and that you are running it in the directory
containing the source file hello.c.

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