COMP 348

PRINCIPLES OF
PROGRAMMING
LANGUAGES

LECTURE 3 – PROCEDURAL PROGRAMMING WITH C

(PART 1)

Dept. of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Concordia University Fall 2021
 Acknowledgement and Copyright Notice
• The following materials are the original lecture note from
the Course Pack “COMP 348 Principles of Programming
Languages” written and developed by:

Dr. Constantinos Constantinides, P.Eng.

Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering
Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
[email protected]
https://users.encs.concordia.ca/~cc/

2
Procedural Programming with C

Functions

3
 Functions
• Similarly to its mathematical counterpart, a computing function
is a (named) block that normally receives some input,
performs some task and normally returns a result.
• Unlike its mathematical counterpart, a computing function
may receive no input or may produce no output.
• A function call implies transfer of control of execution to the
function. When a function completes its task and terminates,
control of execution is transferred back to the client.
• Synonyms for function exist in various languages (such as
method, procedure, or subroutine). It is also important to note
that some languages make a distinction between functions
that return a result and those that do not, the latter ones being
referred to as procedures.

4
 Functions /cont.
• The general form of a function definition in C is

return-type function-name ( parameter-list ) { body }

where return-type is the type of the value that the function

returns, function-name is the name of the function, and
parameter-list is the list of parameters that the function takes,
defined as

( type1 parameter1, type2 parameter2, ... )

5
 Functions /cont.
• If no type is in front of a variable in the parameter list, then int
is assumed. Finally, the body of the function is a sequence of
statements.

• If the function will be accessed before it is defined, then we

must let the compiler know about the function by defining the
function's prototype (or declaration) as follows:
return-type function-name (parameter-type-list);

where return-type and function-name must correspond to the

function definition.

• The parameter-type-list is a list of the types of the function's

parameters. Function main() requires no prototype.
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 Recursion: An example
• C supports recursion, i.e. like its mathematical counterpart a
function in C can call itself.
• The program below computes the factorial of a non-negative
integer. It is composed by two functions: main() and
factorial(..).

#include<stdio.h>
long factorial(int);
int main() {
...
}
long factorial(int n) {
...
}

7
 Recursion: An example /cont.
#include<stdio.h>
long factorial(int);
int main() {
int n;
long f;
printf("Enter an non-negative integer: ");
scanf("%d", &n);
if (n < 0)
printf("Negative integers are not allowed.\n");
else {
f = factorial(n);
printf("%d! = %ld\n", n, f);
}
return 0; }
long factorial(int n) {
if (n == 0)
return 1;
else
return(n * factorial(n-1)); }
8
 Recursion: An example /cont.
• The statement
long factorial(int);

defines the prototype for function factorial.

• The code below

long factorial(int n) {
...
}

is the actual function definition.

• In C, execution always starts from main() which calls all other

functions, directly or indirectly.

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 Recursion: An example /cont.
• In long factorial(int n) {..}, n is called the parameter
(or formal argument, also dummy argument) of the function.

• The result of a function is called its return value and the data
type of the return value is called the function's return type.

• The return type of main() is int (integer), whereas the one of

factorial is long (long integer).

• A function call allows us to use a function in an expression.

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 Recursion: An example /cont.
• In the statement
f = factorial(n);
the function on the right-hand-side executes and the value
that it returns is assigned to the variable f on the left-hand-
side. We refer to n as the actual argument (or just argument if
the distinction is clear from the context).

• Obviously the actual argument(s) to a function would normally

vary from one call to another.
• The values of the actual arguments are copied into the formal
parameters, with a correspondence in number and type.

• Let us execute the program:

Enter an non-negative integer: 5
5! = 120 11
 Example: Fahrenheit to Celcius conversion
• In this example we are writing a program whose main function
requests and receives the value of the fahrenheit temperature
to be converted to celsius and proceeds to call function f2c()
to perform this conversion.
• The function f2c() will apply the conversion formula and return
its result to the caller (function main()).
int main (void) {
int fahrenheit;
printf("Enter the temperature in degrees fahrenheit: ");
scanf("%d", &fahrenheit);
printf ("The corresponding temperature in celsius is %d\n",
f2c(fahrenheit));
return 0; }
int f2c (int fahrenheit) {
int celsius;
celsius = (5.0/9.0) * (fahrenheit-32);
return celsius; }

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Example: Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion /cont.
• Let us execute the program:

Enter the temperature in degrees fahrenheit: 30

The corresponding temperature in celsius is -1

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 Global and local variables
• We distinguish between global and local variables.
• A global variable is defined at the top of the program file and
can be accessed by all functions.
• A local variable is accessed only within the function which it is
declared, called the scope of the variable.
• Though not a good programming practice, in the case where
the same name is used for a global and local variable then the
local variable takes preference within its scope. This is
referred to as shadowing.
• Global variables have default initializations, whereas local
variables do not.

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 Global and local variables /cont.
• Consider the following program that contains a global and a
local variable with the same name.
• Within function func(..) the global variable a is not visible as
the local variable a takes precedence.
#include<stdio.h>
int a = 3;
int func() {
int a = 5;
return a;
}
int main() {
printf("From main: %d\n", a);
printf("From func: %d\n", func());
printf("From main: %d\n", a);
}
• The output is as follows:
From main: 3
From func: 5
From main: 3 15
 Variable and function modifiers
• Two modifiers are used to explicitly indicate the visibility of a
variable or function: The extern modifier indicates that a
variable or function is defined outside the current file, whereas
the static modifier indicates that the variable or function is
visible only from within the file it is defined in.

• The default (i.e. no modifier) indicates that the variable or

function is defined in the current file and it is visible in other
files.

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 Variable and function modifiers: Summary
• extern: Variable/function is defined outside of current file.

• (blank): Variable/function is defined in current file and visible

outside.

• static: Variable/function is visible only in current file.

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 Variable and function modifiers: More
• static local variables provide similar functionality as in global
variables but provide local visibility.

Consider the following example:

int a = 0;
int f () {
return a++;
}

vs.
int f2() {
static int a = 0;
return a++;
}

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 Example: Sorting
• Consider a program that reads in a collection of elements and
proceeds to sort them by calling a function bubbleSort() that is
defined outside the current file and thus must be declared
extern.
#include <stdio.h>
extern void bubbleSort(int[], int);
int main() {
int array[10], numberOfElements;
printf("Enter number of elements: ");
scanf("%d", &numberOfElements);
printf("Enter %d integers: ", numberOfElements);
for (int i = 0; i < numberOfElements; i++)
scanf("%d", &array[i]);
bubbleSort(array, numberOfElements);
printf("Sorted list (ascending order): ");
for (int i = 0 ; i < numberOfElements ; i++)
printf("%d ", array[i]);
return 0;
}
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 Example: Sorting /cont.
• Function bubbleSort(), defined in some other file, makes use
of function swap() that swaps two elements.
• As function swap() need not be visible outside the file in which
it is defined, it is declared static:
static void swap(int *a, int *b) {
int temp = *a;
*a = *b;
*b = temp; }

void bubbleSort(int numbers[], int array_size) {

int i, j;
for (i = (array_size - 1); i > 0; i--) {
for (j = 1; j <= i; j++) {
if (numbers[j-1] > numbers[j])
swap(&numbers[j-1], &numbers[j]); }}}

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 Example: Sorting /cont.

Enter number of elements: 10

Enter 10 integers: 4 6 8 12 45 66 23 43 11 2
Sorted list (ascending order): 2 4 6 8 11 12 23 43 45 66

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 The C standard library
• An application programming interface (API) is a protocol that
constitutes the interface of software components.
• In the C language this is a collection of functions grouped
together according to their domain.
• We can access this API (called the C standard library) by
adding the #include directive at the top of our program file.
• Perhaps the most common is the group of functions that
support input-output and are accessed by <stdio.h>.

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 The C standard library: Common header files
• math.h: Defines common mathematical functions.
• stdio.h: Defines core input and output functions.
• stdlib.h: Defines numeric conversion functions, pseudo-
random number generation functions, memory allocation,
process control functions.
• string.h: Defines string manipulation functions.

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 Formatted Output
• You may be surprised to know that the C language defines no
input/ouput functionality.
• The printf function is part of the standard library. The
following is a list of format specifiers:

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 Formatted Output /cont.
• The \n we used in some printf statements is called an escape
sequence and it represents a newline character. The following
are common escape sequences:

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 Formatted Output /cont.
• Example:
#include<stdio.h>
main () {
int a, b;
float c, d;
a = 7;
b = a / 2;
c = 10.5;
d = c / 2;
printf("%d\n", b);
printf("%3d\n", b);
printf("%3.2f\n", c);
printf("%3.3f\n",d);
return 0;
}
• The output is:
3
3
10.50
5.250 26
Procedural Programming with C

C Data Types and Pointers

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 Data types
• A program is composed by constructs, such as functions and
variables.
• A data type (or simply a type) is a description of the possible
values that a construct can store or compute to, together
with a collection of operations that manipulate that type, e.g.
the set of integers together with operations such as addition,
subtraction, and multiplication.
• Common types among most programming languages include
booleans, numerals, characters and strings.

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 Classes of data types
• The Boolean type contains the values true and false.
• The numeral type includes integers that represent whole
numbers and floating points that represent real numbers.
• The character type is a member of a given set (ASCII) and,
finally, strings are sequences of alphanumeric characters.
• We can distinguish between simple types and composite (or
aggregate) types based on whether or not the values of a type
can contain subparts.
• As an example, we can say that integer is a simple type,
whereas record is composite. A data item is an instance (also:
a member) of a type.

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 Primitive data types
• With respect to a given programming language, a primitive
type is one that is built in (provided by the language).
• The C language supports two different classes of data types,
namely numerals and characters, which are divided into four
type identifiers (int, float, double, char), together with four
optional specifiers (signed, unsigned, short, long):

IDENTIFIER TYPE RANGE

int integer −32, 768 to 32, 767
float real 1.2 × 10−38 to 3.4 × 1038
double real 2.2 × 10−308 to 1.8 ×
10308
char char ASCII

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 Optional specifiers: Short, long, signed and unsigned
• The four specifiers define the amount of storage allocated to
the variable.
• We distinguish between short and long numeral data types
that differ in their range.
• The amount of storage is not specified, but ANSI places the
following rules:

short int ≤ int ≤ long int

and
float ≤ double ≤ long double

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Optional specifiers: Short, long, signed and unsigned /cont.
• We can also distinguish between signed and unsigned
numeral data types.
• Signed variables can be either positive or negative. On the
other hand unsigned variables can only be positive, thus
covering a larger range.

OPTIONAL SPECIFIER RANGE

short int −32, 768 to 32, 767
unsigned short int 0 to 65, 535
unsigned int 0 to 4, 294, 967, 295
long int −2, 147, 483, 648 to 2, 147, 483, 647

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 Type conversion
• Type conversion is the transformation of one type into
another.
• In C, implicit type conversion (or coercion) is the automatic
type conversion done by the compiler.
• In the following example, the value of a float variable is
assigned to an integer variable which in turn is assigned to
another float variable.
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int intvar;
float floatvar = 3.14;
float floatvar2;
intvar = floatvar;
floatvar2 = intvar;
printf("%d : %.2f : %1.3f\n", intvar, floatvar, floatvar2);
return 0; }

• The output of the program is 3 : 3.14 : 3.000 33

 Defining constants
• A constant defines a data type whose value cannot be
modified.

• We can define a constant either with the const keyword as in

float const pi = 3.14;

• or with #define as in
#define TRUE 1
#define FALSE 0

34
 Composite data types
• A composite type is one that is composed by primitive types
or other composite types.

• Normally a composite type is called a data structure: a way to

organize and store data so that it can be accessed and
manipulated efficiently.

• Common composite types include arrays and records.

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 Arrays
• An array is a collection of values (called its elements), all of
the same type, held in a specific order (and in fact stored
contiguously in memory).

• Arrays can be either static (i.e,. fixed-length) or dynamic (i.e.

expandable). An array of size n is indexed by integers from
0 up to and including n-1.

• The composition of primitive (and possibly other composite)

types into a composite type results in a new type.

• For example, integers can be composed to construct an array

of integers.

36
 Arrays: Example
• In the following program, we declare and initialize an array,
numbers, and then pass it as an argument, together with its
size, to function getAverage() that will compute and return the
average of the elements of the array.
#include<stdio.h>
float getAverage(float[], int);
int main() {
float numbers[5] = {1, 2.5, 9, 11.5, 23.5};
printf("Array average: %.1f.\n", getAverage(numbers, 5));
return 0; }
float getAverage(float list[], int size) {
int i;
float sum = 0.0;
float average = 0.0;
for (i=0; i<size; i++)
sum = sum + list[i];
average = (sum/size);
return average; }

• The output is: Array average: 9.5. 37

 Pointers
• A pointer is a type that references (“points to”) another value
by storing that other value's address.
• A pointer variable (also called an address variable is declared
by putting an asterisk * in front of its name, as in the following
statement that declares a pointer to an integer.
int *ptr;
• There are two operators that are used with pointers:
* The “dereference” operator: Given a pointer, obtain the
value of the object referenced (pointed at).
& The “address of” operator: Given an object, use & to point
to it. The & operator returns the address of the object pointed
to.

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 Pointers: Example 1
• The following code segment declares an integer variable a
which is assigned to 42 (line 3), and a pointer p that points to
an integer object (line 4).
• In line 5, the pointer p is assigned the address of variable a,
and in line 6 we display the contents of the object pointed to
by p.
• Accessing the object being pointed at is called dereferencing.
1 #include <stdio.h>
2 int main() {
3 int a = 42;
4 int *p;
5 p = &a;
6 printf("p: %d\n", *p);
7 return 0;
8 }

• The output of the program is p: 42. 39

Pointers: Example 1 /cont.

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 Pointers: Example 2
• In this example an integer pointer ptr points to an integer
variable my_var.

• We then proceed to modify the contents of my_var through ptr

and finally we verify that the value of my_var has indeed been
modified.

#include<stdio.h>
int main() {
int my_var = 13;
int *ptr = &my_var;
*ptr = 17;
printf("my_var: %d\n", my_var);
}

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Pointers: Example 2 /cont.: Illustration

42
 Pointers: Example 2 /cont.
• Note that a statement such as *my_var would have been
illegal as it asks C to obtain the object pointed to by my_var.
However, my_var is not a pointer.

• Similarly, a statement such as &ptr though legal is rather

strange as it asks C to obtain the address of ptr.

• The result is a pointer to a pointer (i.e. the address of an

object that contains the address of another object).

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 Aliasing
• Aliasing is a situation where a single memory location can be
accessed through different variables.
• Modifying the data through one name implicitly modifies the
values associated to all aliased names.
• Consider the program below:
#include<stdio.h>
int main() {
int a = 7;
int *ptr;
ptr = &a;
printf("a: %d\n", a);
printf("a: %d\n", *ptr);
a = 9;
printf("a: %d\n", a);
printf("a: %d\n", *ptr);
*ptr = 11;
printf("a: %d\n", a);
printf("a: %d\n", *ptr);
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return 0; }
 Aliasing /cont.
• In this example, we create an integer variable a and an
integer pointer ptr that points to a.

• We then verify that the two variables contain the same value:

int a = 7;
int *ptr;
ptr = &a;
printf("a: %d\n", a);
printf("a: %d\n", *ptr);

• This will display

a: 7
a: 7

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 Aliasing /cont.
• We then proceed to modify the value of a, first directly
a = 9;
printf("a: %d\n", a);
printf("a: %d\n", *ptr);

• and then through the pointer

*ptr = 11;
printf("a: %d\n", a);
printf("a: %d\n", *ptr);

• This will display

a: 9
a: 9
a: 11
a: 11

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 Constant pointers and pointers to constants
• This section covers:
– constant pointers,
– pointers to constants, and
– constant pointers to constants.

47
 Constant pointers
• Consider the statements below

int a = 3;
int const b = 5;
int c = 7;
int * const ptr1 = &a;

where ptr1 is a constant pointer of integer type, initialized to

the address of variable a.

48
 Constant pointers /cont.
• The content of a constant pointer once assigned cannot
change. In other words, the pointer cannot change the
address it holds.

• If we attempted to do that, as for example with

ptr1 = &c;

we would get an error from the compiler:

error: Assignment to const identifier 'ptr1'.

49
 Pointers to constants
• The statement
int const * ptr2 = &b;

declares and initializes a pointer of constant integer type.

• The value of the object pointed to by the pointer cannot be

modified. If we attempted to do that as for example with

*ptr2 = 7;

we would get an error from the compiler:

error: Assignment to const location.

50
 Pointers to constants /cont.
• We can change the content of this pointer but we cannot
modify the value of the object pointer to.

• In the statements below

ptr2 = &a;

we first point the pointer to variable a which is accepted

• Any attempts to modify the value of a causes compiler error:

error: Assignment to const location.

51
 Constant pointers to constants
• The statement

int const * const ptr3 = &b;

declares and initializes a constant pointer of constant integer

type.

• We can change neither the address the pointer holds nor the
value of the object it is pointed at.

• The following statements result in errors:

ptr3 = &a; >>> error: Assignment to const identifier 'ptr3'.

*ptr3 = 9; >>> error: Assignment to const location.

52
 Constant pointers: Putting everything together
• Let us put everything together:
#include <stdio.h>
int main () {
int a = 3;
int const b = 5;
int c = 7;
int * const ptrl = &a; /* a constant pointer of integer type */
int const * ptr2 = &b; /* a pointer of constant integer type */
int const * const ptr3 = &b;
printf("Pointers: ptrl: %d, ptr2: %d, ptr3: %d.\n",
*ptrl, *ptr2, *ptr3);
return 0;
}

• The output of the program is

Pointers: ptrl: 3, ptr2: 5, ptr3: 5.

53
 Pointers and arrays
• The elements of an array are assigned consecutive
addresses. We can use a pointer to an array in order to iterate
through the array's elements. Suppose we have the following:
int arr[5];
int *ptr;

• In the following statement, we assign the first element of the

array as the value of the pointer:
ptr = &arr[0];

• Pointer arithmetic makes *(ptr + 1) the same as arr[1].

54
 Pointers and arrays: Example
• In this example we explore pointer arithmetic to assign an
array to a pointer, and then use the pointer to display the
values of the first three elements of the array.
• We say that we are displaying the contents of the array by
dereferencing the pointer.
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int arr[5] = {1, 3, 5, 7, 11};
int *ptr;
ptr = &arr[0];
printf("arr[0]: %d, arr[1]: %d, arr[2]: %d\n",
*ptr, *(ptr + 1), *(ptr + 2));
return 0;
}

• The output is:

arr[0]: 1, arr[1]: 3, arr[2]: 5
55
 Pointers and arrays: Example /cont.
• Note that *(ptr + 1) is not the same as *(ptr) + 1.
• In the latter expression the addition of 1 occurs after the
dereference, and it would be the same as arr[0] + 1.

• The statement

printf("arr[1]: %d\n", *(ptr) + 1);

will display

arr[1]: 2

56
 Pointers as function parameters
• In the program below, we deploy function swap that defines
two integer formal parameters, and with the help of a
temporary variable it swaps their values:
#include <stdio.h>
void swap(int a, int b) {
int temp = a;
a = b;
b = temp;
}
int main() {
int first, second;
printf("Enter two integers: ");
scanf("%d%d", &first, &second);
printf("First: %d, Second: %d.\n", first, second);
printf("Swap in progress...\n");
swap(first, second);
printf("First: %d, Second: %d.\n", first, second);
return 0;
} 57
 Pointers as function parameters /cont.
• Let us execute the program:
Enter two integers: 5 7
First: 5, Second: 7.
Swap in progress...
First: 5, Second: 7.

• What is wrong with the program? In C, arguments are passed

by value, i.e. a copy of the value of each argument is passed
to the function.
• As a result, a function cannot modify the actual argument(s)
that it receives.
• To make the function swap the actual arguments we must
pass the arguments by reference, i.e. pass the addresses of
the actual arguments.

58
 Pointers as function parameters /cont.
• The correct program is shown below:
#include <stdio.h>
void swap(int *a, int *b) {
int temp = *a;
*a = *b;
*b = temp;
}
int main() {
int first, second;
printf("Enter two integers: ");
scanf("%d%d", &first, &second);
printf("First: %d, Second: %d.\n", first, second);
printf("Swap in progress...\n");
swap(&first, &second);
printf("First: %d, Second: %d.\n", first, second);
return 0;
}

59
 Pointers as function parameters /cont.
• We can execute the program as follows:
Enter two integers: 5 7
First: 5, Second: 7.
Swap in progress...
First: 7, Second: 5.

60