Controlling Program Flow in C

Shoukath Cherukat
Scientist E
 Control Structures
• Used to control the execution of various
statements in the program.
• By default, instructions in the program are
executed sequentially.
• Control Structures are classified into three
categories.
➢ Decision Making

➢ Loops

➢ Switch Case

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 Decision Making
• When we want a set of instruction to be executed
at one situation, and entirely different set of
instruction to be executed in another situation.
• Implemented using the following:
➢ The if statement

➢ The if-else statement

➢ The conditional operators

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 if statement

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 if statement – syntax
• General form of if statement is:
if ( this condition is true )
{
statement 1;
statement 2;
.
.
statement n;
}

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 If statement – example
main( )
{
int num ;
printf ( "Enter a number less than 10 “) ;
scanf ( "%d", &num ) ;
if ( num <= 10 )
printf ( "What an obedient student you are !" ) ;
}

In c, non-zero value is considered to be true, zero value is

considered to be false

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 If-else statement
• If statement does nothing when the expression
evaluates to false.
• General form of if-else statement:
if(expression)
{
statements;
}
else
{
statements;
}
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 If-else statement example
if(A>B)
{
printf(“A is big”);
}
else
{
printf(“B is big”)
}

If-else statements can also be nested

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 Logical operators
• C allows use of logical operators.
AND &&
OR ||
NOT !

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 Logical Operators
main( )
{
int m1, m2, m3, m4, m5, per ;
printf ( "Enter marks in five subjects " ) ;
scanf ("%d %d %d %d %d", &m1, &m2, &m3, &m4, &m5 ) ;
per = ( m1 + m2 + m3 + m4 + m5 ) / 5 ;
if ( per >= 60 )
printf ( "First division" ) ;
if ( ( per >= 50 ) && ( per < 60 ) )
printf ( "Second division" ) ;
if ( ( per >= 40 ) && ( per < 50 ) )
printf ( "Third division" ) ;
If ( per < 40 )
printf ( "Fail" ) ;
}

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 Logical Operators
• ! Operator – Reverses the result of the operator it
operates on.
• For example, if the expression evaluates to non-zero,
then by applying ! Operator we can make it it zero
and vice-versa.
• Along with the hierarchy of other operators, logical
operators also has a priority which is mentioned in
the table.

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 Hierarchy of logical operators

Note: In ‘C’ assignment operator ‘=‘ is, different from

relational operator ‘==‘.
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 Conditional or ternary operator
• Conditional operators ? And : are called ternary
operators, since they take three arguments.
• General form of ternary operator is:
Expression1?expression2:expression3
• If expression 1 is true, value returned is
expression2,else expression 3 will be returned.

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 Ternary operators-Example
int x, y ;
scanf ( "%d", &x ) ;
y=(x>5?3:4);
Equivalent if statement will be
if ( x > 5 )
y=3;
else
y=4;

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 Loops
• Used to perform set of operations repeatedly.
• Three statements are used to achieve looping
➢ While statement

➢ For statement

➢ Do-while statement

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 While statement
• General form of while statement
initialize loop counter
while(test loop counter for a condition)
{
statement 1;
statement 2;
..
..
statement n;
increment or decrement loop counter;
}
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 While statement example
main()
{
int i=1;
while(i<=10)
{
printf(“%d\n”,i);
i=i+1;
}
}

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 Increment and Decrement operator
• ++ operator is used to increment the value by 1.
i=i+1 => i++;
• -- operator is used to decrement the value by 1.
i=i-1 => i--;
Similarly, compound assignment += operator can
be used.
j+=10 => j=j+10

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 Increment operator
• Consider the statement:
While(i++<10)
First, comparison of i with value 10 is
performed, and then the incrementing
takes place. Here,++ is called post-
increment operator.
while(++i<10)
First, incrementing takes place, then the
comparison of i with value 10 is
performed. here,++ is called pre-increment
operator.
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 do-while loop
• When you are not sure about how many times
the loops has to be executed.
• General form of do-while statement is:
do
{
statements;
}while(condition)
Here statements inside the loop is getting
executed at least once.

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 do-while loop-example
main( )
{
char another ;
int num ; do
{
printf ( "Enter a number " ) ;
scanf ( "%d", &num ) ;
printf ( "square of %d is %d", num, num * num ) ;
printf ( "\n Want to enter another number y /n " ) ;
scanf ( " %c", &another ) ;
} while ( another == 'y' ) ;
}

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 for loop

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 for loop – syntax

General form of for statement:

for(initialize counter; test counter; increment
counter)
{
Statements;
}

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 for loop
• It allows us to specify three things in a single
line.
➢ Setting a loop counter to an initial value

➢ Testing a loop counter to determine

whether it has reached number of

repetitions
➢ Increase the loop counter each time when

the program segment within the loop has

been executed

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 for loop
main( )
{
int i ;
for ( i = 1 ; i <= 10 ; i = i + 1 )
printf ( "%d \n", i ) ;
}
• Consider the example
initial value is i=1;
testing loop counter i<=10
increment the loop counter i=i+1

Note: nesting of for loops can also be done.

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 Break statement
• Used to jump out of the loop instantly.
• Control is passed to the first statement after the
loop.
• This statement is used with for and while loops
while ( j++ <= 200 )
{
if ( j == 150 )
break ;
else
printf ( "%d %d \n", i, j ) ;
}

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 Continue statement
• To take the control to the beginning of the loop
and bypassing the statements inside the loop.

for ( i = 1 ; i <= 2 ; i++ )

{
for ( j = 1 ; j <= 2 ; j++ )
{
if ( i == j )
continue ;
printf ( "\n%d %d\n", i, j ) ;
}
}

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 goto statement
• Used to transfer the control to anywhere in the
program.
• General form of goto is
goto label;
..
..
label:

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 Switch – Case
•allows us to make a decision from the number of choices.

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 Switch – Case Syntax
• General form of switch statement is

switch ( integer expression )

{
case constant 1 :
do this ;
case constant 2 :
do this ;
case constant 3 :
do this ;
default :
do this ;
}

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 Switch statement-example
main( )
{
int i = 2 ;
switch ( i )
{
case 1 :
printf ( "I am in case 1 \n" ) ;
break;
case 2 :
printf ( "I am in case 2 \n" ) ;
break;
case 3 :
printf ( "I am in case 3 \n" ) ;
break;
default :
printf ( "I am in default \n" ) ;
}
}

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 References – Books
• Let Us C, Yashavant P. Kanetkar, BPB
Publications, ISBN:978-81-8333-163-0

• The C Programming Language, Brian W.

Kernighan, With: Dennis M. Ritchie Dennis M.
Ritchie, Prentice Hall, ISBN: 9780131101630
• C in a Nutshell, 2e: The Definitive Reference,
by Peter Prinz and Tony Crawford, O′Reilly;
2nd edition,

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Thank You

Shoukath Cherukat , Scientist E