Basic Computation

Objectives
After studying this section, you should be able to:

 Understand what is a data type

 Declare constants and variables of a program

 Express operations on data

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Contents
 Variables and Data types  Expressions
 Data Types  Arithmetic,
 Integral Types  Relational,
 Floating-Point Types  Logical
 Declarations  Bit Operators
 Basic Memory Operations  Shorthand Assignment Operators
 Literals  Mixing Data Types
 Constants  Casting
 Assignment Operator  Precedence
 Output
 Input
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Variables and Data types
Introduction
 Instruction: A task that hardware must perform on data.
 Data can be: constants, variables.
 Constants: Fixed values that can not be changed when the program
executes.
 Variables: Values can be changed when the program execute.
 Data must be stored in the main memory (RAM).
 2 basic operations on data are READ and WRITE.
 Numerical data can participate in expressions.
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Variables
 A variable is a name referencing to a memory
location (address) 0000 1001
1100 0011
• Holds binary data
c
• Two basic operations: set value, get value.
• When the program is compiled, the compiler will
b
determine the position where the variable is allocated.
a
 Questions:
• Where is it?  It’s Address
Memory
• How many bytes does it occupy?  Data type

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Data Types
 The C language associates a data type with each variable. Each
data type occupies a compiler-defined number of bytes.

 A data type defines:

• How the values are stored and

• How the operations on those values are performed.

 Typed languages defined some primitive data types.

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 Arithmetic Types
 The four most common types of the C language for performing
arithmetic calculations are: char, int, float, double

char: Occupies one byte and can store a small integer value, a single character or a
single symbol:

int: occupies one word and can store an integer value. In a 32-bit environment, an int occupies 4 bytes:

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 Arithmetic Types (cont.)
float: typically occupies 4 bytes and can store a single-precision, floating-point number:

double: typically occupies 8 bytes and can store a double-precision, floating-point number:

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int Type Size Specifiers
 Specifying the size of an int ensures that the type contains a
minimum number of bits. The three specifiers are:
• short: at least 16 bits
• long: at least 32 bits
• long long: at least 64 bits

 Standard C does not specify that a long double must occupy a

minimum number of bits, only that it occupies no fewer bits than a
double.
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double Type Size Specifier
 The size of a long double depends on the environment and is
typically at least 64 bits:

 long double type only ensures that it contains at least as many bits
as a double

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const Qualifier
 Any type can hold a constant value.
 A constant value cannot be changed.
 To qualify a type as holding a constant value we use the keyword
const
 A type qualified as const is unmodifiable.
 If a program instruction attempts to modify a const qualified type,
the compiler will report an error.

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Representing Values
 Hardware manufacturers distinguish integral types from
floating-point types and represent integral data and floating-
point data differently.
• Integral types: char, int

• Floating-point types: float, double

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Exercise 1:
 Convert the following decimal integers to binary:
0011 1111
63 _________________________________________________
1101 1011
219 ________________________________________________
 Convert the following binary notation to decimal:
117
0111 0101 ___________________________________________
59
0011 1011 ___________________________________________

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Negative and Positive Values
 Computers store negative integers using encoding schemes:
• Two's complement notation,
• One's complement notation, and
• Sign magnitude notation.

 All of these schemes represent non-negative integers identically.

 The most popular scheme is two's complement.
 To obtain the two's complement of an integer, we:
• Flip the bits (1-complement)
• Add one  2-complement

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Two's complement notation
 To obtain the two's complement of an integer, we
• Flip the bits
• Add one

 For example, we represent the integer -92 by 101001002

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Exercise 2: Use signed 1-byte integral number
 What is the two's complement notation of
-63_______________________________________________
1100 0001
0010 0101
-219______________________________________________
 Convert the following binary notation to decimal:
1111 0101_________________________________________
-11
-69
1011 1011_________________________________________

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Unsigned Integers
 We can use all of the bits available to store the value of a variable.
 With unsigned variables, there is no need for a negative-value
encoding scheme.

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Cultural Symbols (characters)
 We store cultural symbols using an integral data type.
 We store a symbol by storing the integer associated with the symbol.
 Over 60 encoding sequences have already been defined.

We use the ASCII encoding sequence throughout this course

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 ASCII
table for
characters

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Exercise 3:
 You are tasked to write a program to manage a small library system. Choose the most
suitable data type for each variable based on the information provided.
 The library needs to store the following information:
• Total number of books in the library (e.g., 10,000).
• Average price of books in dollars (e.g., 15.75).
• A single character indicates the book's genre ('F' for Fiction, 'N' for Non-fiction, etc.).
• The unique ID of a book (e.g., 2345678901).
• Whether a book is available or not (1 for available, 0 for not available).
• Number of pages in a book (e.g., 500).
 Tasks:
• Choose an appropriate data type for each variable and explain your choice.
• Declare variables using the chosen data types and initialize them with sample values.
• Print all the values along with their data types.

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The range of values of data types

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Declaring (Creating) Variables
 To create a variable, specify the data type and assign it a value:
 Syntax: data_type identifier [= initial value];

 For example:
char section
int numberOfClasses;
double cashFare = 2.25;

 Rules for naming variables are:

• Names can contain letters, digits and underscores.
• Names must begin with a letter or an underscore (_)
• Names are case-sensitive (myVar and myvar are different variables)
• Names cannot contain whitespaces or special characters like !, #, %, etc.
• Must not be a C reserved word

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Reserved words

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Exercise 4:
 You are tasked to create a C program that calculates the area and
perimeter of a rectangle. As part of this exercise, ensure that all variable
names:
1. Follow the rules for valid naming in C.
2. Are descriptive and meaningful to improve readability.
3. Follow common naming conventions (e.g., camelCase or snake_case).

 Tasks:
1. Identify the rules for valid variable names in C and apply them.
2. Choose appropriate and meaningful variable names for the program.
3. Write the program using the chosen names.
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Some operations on variables:
 Assign a constant value to a variable,

 Assign the value of another variable to a variable,

 Output the value of a variable,

 Input a fresh value into a variable's memory location.

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Example 1: Variable & Data Types

Output:

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 Example 2: Variable & Data Types

Conversion Specifiers
& String format

Where are variables stored and how many bytes do they occupy?

The operator & will get the address of a variable or code.

The operator sizeof(var/type) return the size (number of byte) occupied by a variable/type
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Questions as Summary
 What is a variable?
 What is a data type?
 Characteristics of a data type are …… and …
 The size of the int data type is …. Bytes.
 Choose the wrong declarations:
int n = 10;
char c1, c2 = ‘A’;
int m = 19; k = 2;
char c3; int t;
Float f1; f2 = 5.1;
 Explain little-endian ordering and big-endian ordering.
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Basic Memory Operations
1. Literals
 Constant values are specified
directly in the source code.
 They can be
• Character literals (constant
characters)
• String literals(constant strings)
• Number literals (constant
numbers)

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Literals: Characters, Strings
 4 ways for representing a character literal:
• Enclose the character single quotes ‘A’
• Decimal ASCII code of the character 65 for ‘A’
• Octal ASCII code of the character 0101 for ‘A’,
• Hexadecimal ASCII code of the character 0x41 for ‘A’,

Assign value to a variable:

The operator =

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Literals: Escape Sequences
 Pre-defined literals for special actions:

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Literals: Escape Sequences (cont.)
Error! Why?

Modify
then run it

Change \ to \\ then run it

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Literals: Numbers
 The compiler will convert directly numeric literals (constants) to binary
numbers and put them in the executable file.  How long of binary
constants?  They depend on their data types specified by programmers.

 Default: Integral value  int, real number  double

 Specifying data type of constants: Suffixes after numbers.

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2. Named Constants
 Use const keyword
Syntax: const data_type constant_name = value;
 For example:

Output:

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2. Named Constants (cont.)
 Use the pre-processor (pre-compiled directive) #define
Syntax: #define constant_name value
 For example:

Output:

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2. Named Constants (cont.)
 Attention when the directive replace
#define is used:
• The compiler will not
allocate memory block for
values but all pre-defined
names in the source code
will be replaced by their
values before the translation
performs (The MACRO
REPLACEMENT)
• A name is call as a MACRO.

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3. Input/ Output variables
Monitor is
a character 3
3
device
Binary
code of 3 Convert
for 00110011
ASCII calculatin
code of 00110011 g 00000011
the digit convert
00110011
3

Keyboard is 3 3
a character
device

Conversion rules are pre-defined in C

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Conversion Specifiers

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Example 1:
4210784 n

main
4199056

2293620 m

Format
string

scanf( “%d%d”, &n, &m) 

scanf( “%d%d”, 4210784, 2293620) means that
get keys pressed then change them to decimal
integers and store them to memory locations
4210784, 2293620.

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Example 2: Input a value to a variable:
scanf (“input format”, &var1, &var2,…)
Output the value of a variable:
printf (“output format”, var1, var2,…)

The function scanf receive the BLANK or

ENTER KEYS as separators.

Format string
Data holders

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Question
 Explain means of parameters of the scanf(…) and the printf(…)
functions.
 Use words “left” and “right”. The assignment x=y; will copy the
value in the ….. side to the ….. side.

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Exercise 5:
 Develop a C program in which 2 integers, 2 float numbers and 2 double
numbers are declared. Ask user for values of them then print out values and
addresses of them. Write down the memory map of the program.

 Run the following program:

Why user do not have a
chance to stroke the ENTER
key before the program
terminate?

Modify and re-run:

getchar();

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Expressions
Expressions
 Expression is a valid association of constants, variables,
operators and functions and returns an only result.
 Examples:
• 32-x+y/6 16.5 + 4/sqrt(15) * 17 – 8
• 45 > 5*x y = 17 + 6*5/9 –z*z

 Hardware for calculating expressions: ALU

 Operations that can be supported by ALU: Arithmetic, relational and
logic operations.

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1. Arithmetic Operators
Op. Syntax Description Example
+ +x leaves the variable, constant or expression y = +x ;  y = x;
unchanged

- -x reverses the sign of the variable y= -x;

+ - x+y x-y Add/substract values of two operands z= x+y; t = x-y;

*/ x*y x/y Multiplies values of two operands z= x-y;

Get the quotient of a division z = 10/3;  3
z = 10.0/3;  3.3333333
% x%y Get remainder of a integral division 17%3  2
15.0 % 3  ERROR

++ ++x --x Increase/decrease the value of a variable Demo in the next slide.
-- x++ x-- (prefix/postfix operators)

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1. Arithmetic Operators - Example 1

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1. Arithmetic Operators - Example 2

? Explain yourself the output

Statistic:
•Multiply > Division
•Integral operations > floating-point ones.

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2. Relational Operators
 For comparisional operators.
 < <= == >= > !=
 Return 1: true/ 0: false

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3. Logical Operators
 Operator for association of conditions
 && (and), || (or) , ! (not)
 Return 1: true, 0: false

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4. Bitwise Operators
 & (and), | (or) , ^ (xor): Will act on a pair of bits at the same position in 2 operands.
 << Left shift bits of the operand (operands unchanged)
 >> Right shift bits of the operand (operands unchanged, the sign is preserved.)
 ~ : Inverse bits of the operand.
n&m
0000 0000 0000 1100
n=12: 0000 0000 0000 1100 0000 0000 0000 1000
m= 8: 0000 0000 0000 1000 0000 0000 0000 1000  8

n|m
0000 0000 0000 1100
0000 0000 0000 1000
0000 0000 0000 1100  12

n^m
0000 0000 0000 1100
0000 0000 0000 1000
0000 0000 0000 0100  4

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4. Bitwise Operators (cont.)
n=12: 0000 0000 0000
1100
n<<1:
0000 0000 0000 1100
0000 0000 0001 100  0
0000 0000 0001 1000 (2410)
Left shift 1 bit: multiply by 2

n=12: 0000 0000 0000 k=-1:

1100 1: 0000 0000 0000 0001
n>>1: -1: 1111 1111 1111 1111 (2-complement)
Sign: 0 Sign: 1
0000 0000 0000 1100
0000 0000 0000 110 1111 1111 1111 1111
Add the sign to the left” 111 1111 1 111 1111
0000 0000 0000 110  6 Add the sign to the left:
1111 1111 1111 1111  (-110)

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5. Assignments Operators
 Variable = expression
 Shorthand assignments:

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6. Mixing Data Types
 Although the ALU does not perform operations on operands of
differing data type directly, C compilers can interpret expressions
that contain operands of differing data type.
 If a binary expression contains operands of differing type, a C
compiler changes the data type of one of the operands to match the
other.
 Data type hierarchy: double, float, long, int , char .

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6. Mixing Data Types (cont.)
 Casting Data Type: x = y;

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6. Mixing Data Types (cont.)
 Implicit Casting for the assignment
 If the data type of the variable on the left side
of an assignment operator differs from the
data type of the right side operand, the 0000 0000
compiler: 0000 0000
0000 0000
• Promotes the right operand to the data type of the 0100 0001 0100 0001
left operand if the left operand is of a higher data
type than the right operand, 0000 0000
0000 0000
• Truncates the right operand to the data type of
0000 0000
the left operand if the left operand is of a lower 0001 1001 0001 1001
data type than the right operand.

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6. Mixing Data Types (cont.)
 Implicit Casting for arithmetic and relational expressions
• If the operands in an arithmetic or relational expression differ in data type, the
compiler promotes the value of lower data type to a value of higher data type before
implementing the operation.

int n=3; long t=123; double x=5.3;

3*n + 620*t – 3*x
(int*int) + (int*long) - (int*double)
int + long - double
long - double
double
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 6. Mixing Data Types (cont.)

 Explicit Casting
• We may temporarily
change the data type
of any operand in any
00000000
expression to obtain a 00000000
result of a certain data 00000001
00000000 00000000
type.
c n

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7. Operator Precedence
 In a expression containing some more than one operator. Which operator
will perform first?  Pre-defined Precedence.
 We can use ( ) to instruct the compiler to evaluate the expression within
the parentheses first

int m=3, k=2, n=4;

What is the results?
m<n
k<m<n
k>m>n
m<n>k
m&& k<n

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Summary
 Variable is ……
 Basic memory operations are…..
 Expression is ……….
• Which of the following operators will change value of a variable? + - * / % ++
• Which of the following operators can accept only one operand? + - * / % --
• 13 & 7 = ?
• 62 | 53 = ?
• 17 ^ 21 = ?
• 12 >> 2 = ?
• 65 << 3 = ?

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Summary (cont.)
 Expressions
• Arithmetic operators
• Relational operators
• Logical operators
• Bit operators
• Shorthand Assignment Operators
• Casting
• Precedence

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