Basics of C Programming

Structure:
Your First Program
Preprocessor: interact with
#include <stdio.h>
<stdio h> input/output of your computer

int main() You will see this at the

b i i off nearly
beginning l allll
{ programs

printf("Hello World\n"); Tells computer to load file

named <stdio.h>
<stdio h>
return 0; <stdio.h> allows standard
input/output operations
}
 Your First Program
Preprocessor: interact with
#include <stdio.h>
<stdio h> input/output of your computer

int main() Start point of the program

{ C programs contain one

or more functions,
printf("Hello World\n"); exactly one of which
must be
b maini
return 0; int means that the
function main will
} " t " an iinteger
"return" t value
l
 Your First Program
Preprocessor: interact with
#include <stdio.h>
<stdio h> input/output of your computer

int main() Start point of the program

{ Start and finish of function

printf("Hello World\n");
return 0;
}
 Your First Program
Preprocessor: interact with
#include <stdio.h>
<stdio h> input/output of your computer

int main() Start point of the program

{ Start and finish of function

printf("Hello World\n"); Printing a line of Text

return 0;
}
 Your First Program
Preprocessor: interact with
#include <stdio.h>
<stdio h> input/output of your computer

int main() Start point of the program

{ Start and finish of function

printf("Hello World\n"); Printing a line of Text

return 0;
}
New line character
 Your First Program
Preprocessor: interact with
#include <stdio.h>
<stdio h> input/output of your computer

int main() Start point of the program

{ Start and finish of function

printf("Hello World\n"); Printing a line of Text

return 0; Finish and return value 0

} A way to exit a function

It means that the program
terminated normally in this
case
 Comments for programs
• Why need comments
– Good habit
– Readable to others
– Remind yourself
• How to comment
– /* … */
– // …
• Effects on compiler
• Examples
 Compiler
• What is compiler
– A computer program (or set of programs) that
translates text written in a computer language (
the source code) into another computer language
(most time the executable file)
• Why we need a compiler
• Available C compiler
 Text Editor
• Edit your code Using notepad,
notepad wordpad on
your personal computer
• Save it as a text file with extension .cc
 Procedure
helloworld.c
#include <stdio.h> This is your C program.
program Type the
int main() code in any standard text editor,
{ and save it as helloworld.c.
printf("Hello World\n");
return 0;
}
Type tcc helloworld.c or
cl helloworld.c
helloworld c
C‐compiler bcc32 helloworld.c
to compile helloworld.c into helloworld.exe
using the
h tcc compiler
l
helloworld.exe The compiler generate corresponding
0011 0000 1010 0110 executable code named helloworld.exe.
1100 0110 1011 0101 The computer can execute this machine
1010 1110 0110 1110 readable code if you type
helloworld.exe
 Introduction
• The C programming language was designed by
Dennis Ritchie at Bell Laboratories in the early
1970s
• Influenced by
– ALGOL 60 (1960),
– CPL (Cambridge
(Cambridge, 1963),
1963)
– BCPL (Martin Richard, 1967),
– B (Ken Thompson, 1970)
• Traditionally
d ll used
d for
f systems programming,
though this may be changing in favor of C++
• Traditional C:
– The C Programming Language, by Brian Kernighan
and Dennis Ritchie, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall
– Referred to as K&R
 Standard C
• Standardized in 1989 by ANSI (American National
Standards Institute) known as ANSI C
• International standard (ISO) in 1990 which was adopted
by ANSI and is known as C89
• As part of the normal evolution process the standard
was updated in 1995 (C95) and 1999 (C99)
• C++ and C
– C++ extends C to include support for Object Oriented
Programming and other features that facilitate large
software development projects
– C is not strictly a subset of C++, but it is possible to write
“Clean C” that conforms to both the C++ and C standards.
 Elements of a C Program
• A C development environment includes
– System libraries and headers: a set of standard libraries and their
header files. For example see /usr/include and glibc (in
Li
Linux)or)
C:\tc\include and C:\tc\lib
– Application Source: application source and header files
– Compiler: converts source to object code for a specific platform
– Linker: resolves external references and produces the executable
module
• User program structure
– there must be one main function where execution begins when the
program is run. This function is called main
• int main (void) { ... },
• int main (int argc, char *argv[]) { ... }
• UNIX Systems have a 3rd way to define main(), though it is not POSIX.1
compliant
int main (int argc,argc char *argv[]*argv[], char *envp[])
– additional local and external functions and variables
 Getting Started with C
Programming: Involves speaking the language the computer can understand

Alphabets Words Sentences Paragraph

Alphabets
Constants
Digits
Variables Instructions Program
Special
Keywords
Symbols

C Character Set
Alphabets A,B,…,Z, a,b, …,z
Digits 0,1,2,…,9
Special Symbols ~‘@#%^&*()_‐+ =|\{}[]:;“ ’ <>,.?/
 Getting Started with C
Constants
Variables
Keywords

The Alphabets,
Alphabets Digits and Symbols properly combined form
Constants, Variables and Keywords
A Constant: A q
quantityy that doesn’t change
g stored at a memoryy
location
A Variable: Simply a name given to the memory location where
a value is stored.
Contents of the variable can be changed
 Getting Started with C
Type of C Constant:
Primary: Integer, Real, Character, etc..
Primary
Secondary: Array, Pointer, Structure,….
Secondary
Some Rules:
Integer
g Constants:
* Have at least one digit,
* No decimal point,
* if no sign precedes it is assumed to be positive
* No comma or blanks are allowed
* Range ‐32768
32768 to +32767
 Getting Started with C
Some Rules:
Real Constants:
* Have at least one digit,
* must have a decimal point,
p ,
* if no sign precedes it is assumed to be positive
* No comma or blanks are allowed
* In exponential form represents in two parts:
Mantissa is appeared before ‘e’ and exponent after ‘e’
Mantissa can be +ve or –ve
Range ‐3.4e38 to +3.4e38
Character Constants
* either a single alphabet, a digit or a symbol enclosed
within single inverted commas
 Getting Started with C
Types of Variables
“A
A quantity which may vary during the program execution is a
variable”
Variable Names: Names given to the memory locations where
different constants are stored
• Particular type
yp of variable can hold onlyy that type
yp of data
• Some rules for constructing Variable names
• Start with a alphabet A…Z, a…z
• Names are case sensitive
• Can contain any combination up to 32 (in standard C)
characters of alphabet,
alphabet numbers
numbers, or underscores
• No commas or blanks are allowed
• No symbols are allowed except underscores ( _ )
 Getting Started with C
• In c it is compulsory to declare variables before, to use them
• Using a proper naming conversion is a good programming
practice
• Eg: int averageMarks,
averageMarks totalMarksBySubjects
C Keywords
The reserved
Th d words
d whose
h meaning
i h has already
l d been
b
explained to the C compiler
 Getting Started with C
C Instructions
Combine constants,
constants variables and keywords in logical manner
• Type declaration : to declare the type of variables used in a
program
• Input/Output: to perform the function of supplying input data
to a p
program
g and obtainingg the result from it
• Arithmetic: to perform arithmetic operation between
constants and variables
• Control: to control the sequence of execution of various
statements in a program
 Getting Started with C
Type declaration
C provides a wide range of types. The most common are

There are also several variants on these types.