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Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

Department of Computing

ICT1402
PRINCIPLES OF PROGRAM DESIGN &
PROGRAMMING
Lecture 07
Type Casting, Command Line Arguments
and Defining Constants

K.A.S.H. Kulathilake
Ph.D., M. Phil., MCS, B.Sc. (Hons) IT, SEDA(UK)
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Objectives
• At the end of this lecture students should be able
to;
▫ Define type cast and type promotion in C
programming language.
▫ Define command line arguments in C
Programming language.
▫ Declare constants according to the C
programming.
▫ Apply math.h header file for problem solving.
▫ Apply taught concepts for writing programs.
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Type Casting
• Type cast is an instruction to the compiler to
convert one type into another.
• For example, if you want to store a 'long' value into a
simple integer then you can type cast 'long' to 'int'.
• Here, target-type specifies the desired type to
convert the specified expression to.
• You can convert the values from one type to another
explicitly using the cast operator as follows:
(type_name) expression
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Type Casting (Cont…)

• When a cast involves a narrowing
conversion, information might be lost.
• For example, when casting a long into a short,
information will be lost if the long’s value is
greater than the range of a short because its
high-order bits are removed.
• When a floating-point value is cast to an integer
type, the fractional component will also be lost
due to truncation.
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Type Casting (Cont…)

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
int sum = 17, count = 5;
double mean;
mean = sum / count;
printf("Value of mean : %f\n", mean );
return 0;
}

Value of mean : 3.000000

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Type Casting (Cont…) It should be noted here that

the cast operator has
precedence over division, so
#include <stdio.h> the value of sum is first
converted to
type double and finally it
int main() { gets divided by count yielding
int sum = 17, count = 5; a double value.
double mean;
mean = (double) sum / count;
printf("Value of mean : %f\n", mean );
return 0;
}

Value of mean : 3.400000

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Type Promotion/ Automatic Casting

• When one type of data is assigned to another type of
variable, an automatic type conversion will take place if
▫ The two types are compatible. E.g. boolean and char is
not compatible.
▫ The destination type is larger than source type.
• For example, the int type is always large enough to hold
all valid short values, and both int and short are integer
types, so an automatic conversion from short to int can
be applied.
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Type Promotion/ Automatic Casting

(Cont…)
Here, the value of sum is 116 because the
#include <stdio.h> compiler is doing integer promotion and
converting the value of 'c' to ASCII
int main() { before performing the actual addition
operation.
int i = 17;
char c = 'c'; /* ascii value is 99 */
int sum;

sum = i + c;
printf("Value of sum : %d\n", sum );
return 0;
}
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Typical Arithmetic Conversion

• The typical arithmetic
conversions are implicitly
performed to cast their values to
a common type.
• The compiler first
performs integer promotion; if
the operands still have different
types, then they are converted to
the type that appears highest in
the given hierarchy.
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Typical Arithmetic Conversion (Cont…)

• In any program it is recommended to only
perform arithmetic operations on pairs of values
of the same type.
• When compatible types are mixed in an
assignment, the value of the right side is
automatically converted to the type of the left
side.
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Typical Arithmetic Conversion (Cont…)

• For widening conversions, the numeric types,
including integer and floating-point types, are
compatible with each other.
• There are no automatic conversions from the
numeric types to char or boolean. Also, char and
boolean are not compatible with each other.
• However, an integer literal can be assigned to
char
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Typical Arithmetic Conversion (Cont…)

#include <stdio.h>
int main (void)
{
float f1 = 123.125, f2;
int i1, i2 = -150;
char c = 'a';
/* floating to integer conversion */
i1 = f1;
printf ("%f assigned to an int produces %i\n", f1, i1);
/* integer to floating conversion */
f1 = i2;
printf ("%i assigned to a float produces %f\n", i2, f1);
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Typical Arithmetic Conversion (Cont…)

/* integer divided by integer */
f1 = i2 / 100;
printf ("%i divided by 100 produces %f\n", i2, f1);
/* integer divided by a float */
f2 = i2 / 100.0;
printf ("%i divided by 100.0 produces %f\n", i2, f2);
/* type cast operator */
f2 = (float) i2 / 100;
printf ("(float) %i divided by 100 produces %f\n", i2, f2);
return 0;
}

123.125000 assigned to an int produces 123

-150 assigned to a float produces -150.000000
-150 divided by 100 produces -1.000000
-150 divided by 100.0 produces -1.500000
(float) -150 divided by 100 produces -1.500000
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Command Line Arguments

• It is possible to pass some values from the
command line to your C programs when they
are executed.
• These values are called command line
arguments and many times they are important for
your program especially when you want to control
your program from outside instead of hard coding
those values inside the code.
• The command line arguments are handled using
main() function arguments where argc refers to the
number of arguments passed, and argv[] is a
pointer array which points to each argument passed
to the program.
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Command Line Arguments (Cont…)

#include <stdio.h>

int main( int argc, char *argv[] )

{
printf("The first argument supplied is %s\n", argv[0]);
printf("The second argument supplied is %s\n",
argv[1]);
return 0;
When you run the program remember to
} pass the arguments

F:\C\L04>CommandLineArguments.exe test
The first argument supplied is CommandLineArguments.exe
The second argument supplied is test
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Command Line Arguments (Cont…)

• It should be noted that argv[0] holds the name of the
program itself and argv[1] is a pointer to the first
command line argument supplied, and *argv[n] is the
last argument.
• If no arguments are supplied, argc will be one, and if you
pass one argument then argc is set at 2.
• E.g. F:\C\L04>CommandLineArguments.exe test

argv CommandLineArguments.exe test

argc is 2 here
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Command Line Arguments (Cont…)

#include <stdio.h> F:\C\L04>CommandLineArguments.exe arg1 arg2
The first argument supplied is
CommandLineArguments.exe
int main( int argc, char The second argument supplied is arg1
*argv[] ) The third argument supplied is arg2
{
printf("The first F:\C\L04>CommandLineArguments.exe "arg1" "arg2"
The first argument supplied is
argument supplied is %s\n",
CommandLineArguments.exe
argv[0]); The second argument supplied is arg1
printf("The second The third argument supplied is arg2
argument supplied is %s\n",
argv[1]); F:\C\L04>CommandLineArguments.exe "arg1" arg2
printf("The third The first argument supplied is
argument supplied is %s\n", CommandLineArguments.exe
The second argument supplied is arg1
argv[2]);
The third argument supplied is arg2
return 0;
}
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Command Line Arguments (Cont…)

#include <stdio.h> F:\C\L04>CommandLineArguments.exe arg1 "arg2"
The first argument supplied is
CommandLineArguments.exe
int main( int argc, char The second argument supplied is arg1
*argv[] ) The third argument supplied is arg2
{
printf("The first F:\C\L04>CommandLineArguments.exe arg1, arg2
The first argument supplied is
argument supplied is %s\n",
CommandLineArguments.exe
argv[0]); The second argument supplied is arg1,
printf("The second The third argument supplied is arg2
argument supplied is %s\n",
argv[1]);
printf("The third
argument supplied is %s\n",
argv[2]);
return 0;
}
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Defining Constants
• There are two ways to define constant in C
programming:
▫ Using the const key word.
const data_type constant_name = constant_value;
const float PI = 3.1412;
▫ Using the #define directive.
▫ #define come before the program main block.
#define constant_name constant_value
#define PI 3.1412
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Defining Constants (Cont…)

• Write a program to read the radius of a circle and print out the perimeter of
it on the screen.

#include <stdio.h>
#define PI 3.1412

int main ()
{
float radius;
printf ("Enter the radius in mm : \n");
scanf ("%f",&radius);

printf("The perimeter is : %.2f", 2*PI*radius);

return 0;
}
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Defining Constants (Cont…)

#include <stdio.h>

int main ()
{
const float PI = 3.1412;
float radius;
printf ("Enter the radius in mm : \n");
scanf ("%f",&radius);

printf("The perimeter is : %.2f", 2*PI*radius);

return 0;
}
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Math Functions
• The math.h header defines various
mathematical functions.
• All the functions available in this library
take double as an argument and
return double as the result.
• You can find documentation via:
▫ http://devdocs.io/c/numeric/math
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Math Functions (Cont…)

S.N. Function & Description

1 double acos(double x)
Returns the arc cosine of x in radians.
2 double asin(double x)
Returns the arc sine of x in radians.
3 double atan(double x)
Returns the arc tangent of x in radians.
4 double atan2(double y, double x)
Returns the arc tangent in radians of y/x based on the signs of both values to
determine the correct quadrant.
5 double cos(double x)
Returns the cosine of a radian angle x.
6 double cosh(double x)
Returns the hyperbolic cosine of x.
7 double sin(double x)
Returns the sine of a radian angle x.
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Math Functions (Cont…)

8 double sinh(double x)
Returns the hyperbolic sine of x.
9 double tanh(double x)
Returns the hyperbolic tangent of x.
10 double exp(double x)
Returns the value of e raised to the xth power.
11 double frexp(double x, int *exponent)
The returned value is the mantissa and the integer pointed to by exponent is the
exponent. The resultant value is x = mantissa * 2 ^ exponent.

12 double ldexp(double x, int exponent)

Returns x multiplied by 2 raised to the power of exponent.

13 double log(double x)
Returns the natural logarithm (base-e logarithm) of x.
14 double log10(double x)
Returns the common logarithm (base-10 logarithm) of x.
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Math Functions (Cont…)

15 double modf(double x, double *integer)
The returned value is the fraction component (part after the decimal), and sets
integer to the integer component.

16 double pow(double x, double y)

Returns x raised to the power of y.
17 double sqrt(double x)
Returns the square root of x.
18 double ceil(double x)
Returns the smallest integer value greater than or equal to x.
19 double fabs(double x)
Returns the absolute value of x.
20 double floor(double x)
Returns the largest integer value less than or equal to x.
21 double fmod(double x, double y)
Returns the remainder of x divided by y.
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Math Functions (Cont…)

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

int main ()
{
printf("Value 8.0 ^ 3 = %.2lf\n", pow(8.0, 3));
printf("Sqrt of 100 = %.2f\n", sqrt(100));
printf("log (100) = %.2f\n", log(100.0));
printf("sin (90) = %.2f\n", sin (90.0));
printf("ceil (10.45) = %.2f\n", ceil(10.45));
printf("floor (10.45) = %.2f\n", floor(10.45));
printf("fabs (-10.45) = %.2f\n", fabs(-10.45));
printf("round (10.45) = %.2f\n", round (10.45));

return(0);
}
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Objective Re-cap
• Now you should be able to:
▫ Define type cast and type promotion in C
programming language.
▫ Define command line arguments in C
Programming language.
▫ Declare constants according to the C
programming.
▫ Apply math.h header file for problem solving.
▫ Apply taught concepts for writing programs.
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References
• Appendix A, section 5 - Programming in C, 3rd
Edition, Stephen G. Kochan
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