Chapter 1

Problem Solving Through

Computers & Introduction to C

Dr. Niroj Kumar Pani

[email protected]

Department of Computer Science Engineering & Applications

Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology
Sarang, Odisha
Chapter Outline…
◼ The Problem-Solving Approach

◼ Algorithms

◼ Programming

◼ Structured Programming

◼ Introduction to C

◼ The 1st C Program

◼ Writing, Building & Executing the 1st Program

◼ One More Program

◼ The Same Program Using User-Defined Function

◼ Structure of a C Program

◼ Assignments

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.2

The Problem-Solving Approach
Problem solving through computers involves the following steps:

1. Understanding / analyzing the problem

➢ As the first step in problem solving, we try to understand the problem in
total, because if we don’t understand the problem, we may end up
developing a solution which may not solve our purpose.
➢ We figure out the inputs our solution should accept and the outputs our
solution should produce.
Example:
Problem: Find the average of three numbers.
Inputs: 3 real numbers.
Output: 1 real number which is the average of the inputs.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.3

2. Developing an algorithm
➢ Once we understand the problem, the next sept is to formulate a
solution; a sequence of steps that gives us the desired output.
➢ The solution is represented in human-readable language and is called
an algorithm (or, logic).
We discuss algorithms in the next section.

3. Programming / coding
➢ Algorithms are for humans (written in human-readable languages) not
for computers.
➢ If we want to solve a problem through computers, an algorithm must be
translated to a program (a language that the computers understand).
➢ Different programming languages can be used for this.
We discuss programming in detail later in this chapter.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.4

4. Testing & Debugging
➢ The program created should be tested on various parameters such as
▪ Syntax: The program should be free from programming
language-related errors.
▪ Semantic / Logic: The program should generate correct output
for all possible inputs.
▪ Performance: The program must give the desired output within
the expected time.

➢ The errors found in the testing phases are debugged or rectified and the
program is tested again. This process continues until all the errors are
removed from the program.

[NOTE]: Software industry follows standardized testing methods like unit or

component testing, integration testing, system testing, and acceptance testing while
developing complex applications. This is to ensure that the software meets all the
business and technical requirements and works as expected.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.5

Algorithms
◼ An algorithm (logic) is independent of any programming language.

◼ [Algorithm - Definition]: An algorithm is a step-by-step, well defined, finite set of

instructions, that if followed, accomplishes a particular task. An algorithm may
or may not take inputs and produces a value or set of values as output.

Notable characteristics of an algorithm (observed from the above definition):

➢ Step-by-Step: The instructions are ordered.
➢ Definiteness: Each instruction is clear and unambiguous.
➢ Finiteness: The algorithm terminates after a finite number of steps.
➢ Input: Zero or more quantities as input.
➢ Output: At least one quantity as output.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.6

Algorithm Specification (Representation)

◼ There are two common methods of representing an algorithm:

1. Pseudocode
2. Flowchart
◼ Pseudocode
➢ It is English-like representation of algorithms. It is part English, part
structured code.
➢ Most common form of algorithm representation.
➢ Pseudocode Example 1 (ALG1_1): Algorithm to find the average of three
numbers.

FindAverage (x, y, z)
/* This algorithm takes as input three numbers, computes their average and displays it. */
1. Set Sum = x+y+z /* ‘Sum’ is a real number that represents the sum of x, y, z */
2. Set Avg = Sum/3 /* ‘Avg’ is a real number that represents the average of x, y, z */
3. Write: Avg

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.7

➢ Pseudocode Example 2 (ALG1_2): Algorithm to compute the largest of
three numbers.

FindLargest(x, y, z)
/* This algorithm takes as input 3 integers x, y and z. It finds the largest among them and
displays the result. */
1. Set largest = x /* ‘largest’ represents the largest number */
2. If y > largest, then:
Set largest = y
3. If z > largest, then:
Set largest = z
4. Write: largest

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.8

➢ Pseudocode Example 3 (ALG1_3): Algorithm to compute the average of
‘n’ numbers.

FindAverage (A, n)
/* This algorithm takes as input one array ‘A’ with ‘n’ elements, indexed from 0. It
computes the average of the ‘n’ numbers in the array and displays it*/
1. Set Sum = 0 /* ‘Sum’ is an integer. It represents the sum of all ‘n’ numbers*/
2. Set i = 0 /* ‘i’ is an integer. It is used as a counter variable */
3. While i < n, repeat steps 4 to 5
4. Set Sum = Sum + A[i]
5. Set i = i+1
6. Set Avg = Sum / n
7. Write: Avg

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.9

◼ Flowcharts
➢ A flow chart is a pictorial / graphical representation of an algorithm. It
uses symbols to represent specific actions.
➢ Most common symbols used in Flowcharts:

Symbols Use

Start / Stop

Input / Output

Processing

Condition

Data flow

Connector

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.10

◼ Flowchart Example 1 (FC1_1): Compute the larges of three numbers.

Start

Input x, y, z

Largest = x

Yes
y > largest ? Largest = y
No

Yes
z > largest ? Largest = z

No

Display largest

Stop

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.11

➢ Flowchart Example 2 (FC1_2): Compute the average of ‘n’ numbers.

Start

Input an array of n numbers

sum = 0, i = 0

No
i<n?
Yes
Read number

sum = sum + number, i = i+ 1

average = sum / n

Display average

Stop

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.12

Control Flow

◼ The control flow depicts the order in which the instructions in an algorithm are
executed.
◼ The control flow can be a
➢ Sequence: All the instructions are executed one after another, starting
from the 1st instruction to the last, e.g., ALG1_1.
➢ Selection / Decision / Branch: One set of instructions is executed if a
particular condition becomes true and another set of instruction is
executed if the condition becomes false, e.g., ALG1_2.
▪ Generally specified through an ‘if’ clause.
➢ Loop / Repetition / Iteration: A set of instructions is executed repeatedly
until a particular condition becomes false, e.g., ALG1_3.
▪ Generally specified through an ‘while’ clause.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.13

Key Factors in Algorithm Development

◼ For a given problem, more than one algorithm is possible.

For example, in ALG1_1 the three instructions can be replaced by just one
instruction: Write: (x+y+z)/3.
Therefore, we must design the most suitable one.

◼ Developing a good algorithm depends upon many factors, such as

➢ Deployment of top-down approach: Whether the problem should be
solved in total or it should be decomposed into number of independent
sub-problems, each of which is handled separately.
➢ Choosing the right design technique: Some of the most popular
algorithm design techniques are:
▪ Divide-and-conquer
▪ Greedy method
▪ Dynamic programming
▪ Backtracking
▪ Branch-and-bound
Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.14
➢ Choice of suitable data structure: Which data structure would be most
suitable for the operations:
▪ Normal variables
▪ Arrays
▪ Stacks
▪ Queues
▪ Trees
▪ Graphs
➢ Deciding the flow of control: Whether the flow of control at different
parts of the algorithm would be in a
▪ Sequence
▪ Branch / selection / decision
▪ Loop / repetition / iteration

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.15

Programming
◼ Programming: It is the art / technique of writing programs (good programs).

◼ A Program: A program is nothing, but an algorithm (logic) written according to

the syntax of a specific programming language.

Program = Algorithm + Syntax

[Formal Definition]: A program is a step-by-step, well defined, finite set of

instructions, written according to the syntax of a specific programming
language, that if followed, accomplishes a particular task. A program may or
may not take inputs and produces a value or set of values as output.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.16

Evolution of Programming Paradigms

Low/Machine-Level Language • Programs written using binary numbers (0, 1).

• Difficult to write, understand and debug.
• Machine dependent.

• Programs written using mnemonics (MOV B 5).

Assembly-Level Language • OK, if the lines of code are small.
• With increase in lines of code, the program becomes
complex, hence becomes difficult to write, understand,
debug, and maintain.
High-Level: Procedure Oriented • Machine dependant.

• Programs written using high-level (English-like) language.

• Easy to write, understand , debug, and maintain..
High-Level: Object Oriented • Machine independent.
• Examples: FORTRAN, PASCAL, ALGOL, BCPL, B, C etc.
[NOTE]: Though C is normally mentioned to be a high-
level language it is actually a middle-level language.

• Programming with procedure-oriented languages is OK, when the lines of codes are limited to few
thousand. However, once the lines of codes exceed this limit a procedure-oriented program also
become complex. Object-oriented programming is designed to overcome this problem.
• Examples: Smalltalk, C++, Java, C#

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.17

Assemblers, Compilers, and Interpreters

A computer understands only 0 and 1 (machine-level language). Therefore, the

codes written in assembly-level or high-level languages need to be converted
(translated) to equivalent binary forms (0, 1), so that the computer can understand
and execute them.

◼ Assembler: An assembler is a software that translates assembly-level language

code to equivalent machine-level language code. This translation process
(from assembly-level to machine-level) is called assembling.

◼ Compiler: A compiler is a software that translates high-level language code to

equivalent machine-level language code. This translation process (from high-
level to machine-level) is called compilation.

[NOTE]: Some old compilers produces assembly-level language as output, which in turn
should be passed through an assembler to produce the desired machine-level codes (Most of
the modern compilers - all C compilers - produce machine-level language as output.)

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.18

◼ Interpreter: Many high-level languages uses another software, called the
interpreter, to translates high-level language code to equivalent machine-level
language code. The translation process (through an interpreter) is called
interpretation.

Though, both compiler and interpreter does the same thing, there are some
differences between these two (given in next slide).

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.19

 Compiler Interpreter
• A compiler takes as input the entire • An interpreter takes as input one
program (source code file) and scans it. If instruction at a time and scans it. If there is
there is any error in any part of the entire any error in that instruction, it displays
program, it displays the list of errors these list of errors without translating that
without translating a single instruction. instruction. Once all the errors in that
Once all the errors, in the entire program instruction are corrected (debugged), it
are corrected (debugged), the source translates that instruction to machine-level
code file as a whole is translated into code, and moves to the next instruction.
machine-level code and is stored in a This process continues until the program
separate file, called the object file. ends. In this case no object file is created.
• Since the compiler shows the list of errors • Since the errors are displayed on the go
only after scanning the entire source per instruction, debugging is comparatively
code, debugging is comparatively hard. easy.
• It takes large amount of time to analyze & • It takes less amount of time to analyze the
translate the source code, but the overall source code, but the overall execution time
execution time is comparatively less. is high (as no object file is created).
• Programming language like C, C++ use • Programming language like Python, Ruby
compilers use interpreters.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.20

Structured Programming
◼ Structured programming refers to the methodology of writing a program which
is structured - meaning that - the program is made of well-defined blocks
(commonly called, functions or methods), and each block has the single-entry
and single-exit property.

◼ The single-entry and single-exit property helps in reducing the number of paths
of flow of control, which makes the program simple to design and understand.
➢ If there are arbitrary paths for flow of control, the program will be
difficult to write, understand, debug, and maintain.

◼ Examples: C, C++, Java, C# are all examples of structured programming.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 2.21

Introduction to C
History of C

1960 ALGOL International Community

1967 BCPL Martin Richards

1970 B Ken Thompson

1972 C Denis Ritchie

1989 ANSI C ANSI Committee

1990 ANSI/ISO C ISO Committee

1999 C99 Standardization Committee

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 2.22

◼ ALGOL (Algorithmic Language):
➢ Introduced in 1960, by a group of international scientists.
➢ Mother of all high-level languages.
➢ 1st gave the concept of structured programming.

◼ BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language):

➢ Developed by Martin Richards in 1967.
➢ Primarily designed for writing system software.

◼ B:
➢ Created by Ken Thompson in 1970.
➢ Used the features of BCPL.
➢ Used to write the early version of UNIX in the Bell laboratories.

◼ C:
➢ Created by Denis Ritchie at Bell laboratories in 1972.
➢ He used the features of ALGOL, BCPL, and B and added the concept of
data types and some more powerful features to formulate this language.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.23

 ➢ UNIX is almost entirely coded using C.
➢ Until 1978, mainly used in academic environment.
➢ Became very popular when Brain Kernighan and Denis Ritchie, in 1978,
described this language in his book “The C Programming Language”.
➢ This original form of C is also known as “K&R C”.

◼ ANSI C:
➢ The rapid growth of C led to the development of different versions of C,
that were similar but often became incompatible. This proposed a
serious problem for system development.
➢ To assure that the C language remains a standard, in 1983, ANSI
(American National Standards Institute) appointed a technical committee to
define a standard for C.
➢ This committee approved a version of C in December 1989, which is
known as ANSI C.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.24

◼ ANSI/ISO C: ANSI C was approved by ISO (International Standards Organization) in
1990; hence, known as ANSI/ISO C. This version of C is also referred to as C89.

◼ C99:
➢ During 1990’s, C++, a language based upon C, underwent a number of
changes.
➢ During the same period, Sun Microsystems of USA created a new
language JAVA modeled on C++.
➢ In 1999, the standardization committee of C felt that some new features
of C++/JAVA, if added to C, would enhance the usefulness of the
language.
➢ The result was C99.

[NOTE]: This paper is base on the ANSI/ISO C standard.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.25

Key Characteristics of C

The increasing popularity of C is due to its following characteristics:

1. C is a robust language: It has a rich set of operators and built-in functions

that can be used to write even very complex programs.

2. C programs are efficient and fast: C is actually a middle-level language.

Hence it is well suited for writing system software along with utility
software.

3. C has only 32 key words: A small set but highly effective.

4. C is highly portable: C programs written for one computer can be run on

another computer with little or no modification.

5. C is a structured: Modular form of C makes it easier to develop, debug, test

and maintain.

6. C has the ability to extend itself: The user can write and add his own
functions to the C library or even can create his own library.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.26

The 1st C Program

1 /* PR1_1.c: Program that displays the message "Welcome to Sea" */

2 #include <stdio.h>
3 #include <conio.h>
4 void main()
5 {
6 printf("Welcome to Sea. \n");
7 getch();
8 }
9 /* Program Ends */

Output

Welcome to Sea

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.27

Explanation

◼ Line Nos. 1 and 9: These are comment lines.

➢ Comments in C begins with /* and ends with */.
➢ Comments are NOT executable statements; they are ignored by the
compiler.
➢ It is always a good programming style to include comments because, it
helps the programmer and others to understand & debug the program.
➢ Comments can be put at any part of a program, but NOT within a word
or a statement.
➢ Comments can’t be nested.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.28

◼ Line Nos. 4, 5, and 8: This is something which is called a function in C (functions
are discussed in detail in another Chapter).
➢ In C, the syntax of writing function is as follows:

return_type function_name (type arg1, type arg2, ...)

{ /* An opening curly brace marks the beginning of a function */

statement(s); /* Statements within the opening & closing curly braces
forms the function body */
} /* A closing curly brace marks the end of a function */

➢ In our example, the name of the function is main.

➢ main is a special function in C that tells the compiler where to start the
program execution (In C, all executable statements are put in one or more
functions. So, which function should execute 1st when the program runs? Program
execution always starts from main. It call other functions as and when needed.)
➢ Every C program must have exactly one main function (if there are more
than one main, the compiler can’t understand which one marks the beginning of the
program. So, it generate an error message.)
Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.29
➢ The empty parenthesis immediately following main indicates that main
takes no arguments.
➢ The word void before main indicates that main has no return type (main
returns nothing to the compiler).
➢ The opening curly brace ‘{’ marks the beginning of main.
➢ The closing curly brace ‘}’ marks the end of main.
➢ All the statements within the braces (in our example line numbers 5 & 6)
forms the body of main.
➢ C permits following forms of main:

main()
int main() All are same (Takes no arguments, returns an integer value)
main(void)
int main(void)
void main()
Both are same (Takes no arguments, returns nothing)
void main(void)
Used for accepting command line
int main(int argc, char* argr[])
arguments (discussed in Chapter “Files
void main(int argc, char* argr[]) and Command Line Arguments.)

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.30

◼ Line No. 6: This is the 1st executable statement in our program. This statement
prints the message “Welcome to Sea” [printf is discussed in detail in Chapter 4.]
➢ printf is a pre-defined C function for printing / displaying the output
(In C, there are two types of functions, pre-defined and user-defined. Pre-defined
means already written and compiled; readily available for using).
➢ printf prints everything within the double quotes (“ ”).
➢ Note the semicolon (;) at the end of the printf statement. Every C
statement should end with a semicolon.

◼ Line No. 7: This is the 2nd executable statement in our program. getch() is also
a pre-defined function. The details about this are discussed in Chapter 4..

◼ Line No. 2 and 3: These are pre-processor directives.

➢ In C, every line that begins with a hash (#) is known as a pre-processor
directive.
➢ These lines are processed by a program called the pre-processor (pre-
processing happens before compiling - details are discussed soon).

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.31

 ➢ The #include directive tells the pre-processor to include the files
stdio.h and conio.h into the C program at the same place where
the corresponding directive is written (When the compiler compiles the
program it sees the content of the file stdio.h and conio.h in the exact place
where the corresponding pre-processor directive is written).
➢ The files stdio.h (“stdio” stands for “standard input/output”) and conio.h
(“conio” stands for “console input/output”) are header files that contains
information on the library input/output functions. In our example
stdio.h contains information on printf and conio.h contains
information on getch. This information is required by the compiler,
otherwise the compiler can’t understand “what are printf and getch?”.

◼ [NOTE]: C is case sensitive (i.e., printf and PRINTF are different).

➢ In C, all pre-defined things are in lower case.
➢ It is a convention to write all user-defined things also in lower case,
except the symbolic constants (discussed later).

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.32

Writing, Building & Executing the 1st Program
The Concept of Writing, Building & Executing

Many steps are involved between writing a C program and it gets executed. The
figure in the next slide shows these steps.

[NOTE]: Most of the IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) like TC++, VC++,
CodeBlocks etc. hide (does automatically) many of the steps for us. We will study how to perform
these steps in different environments (OS) later, but before this let’s 1 st understand what is done at
each step.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.33

STEP 1 Writing & Saving (Done by an Editor)

C Source Code (PR1_1.c)

Building

STEP 2 Pre-processing (Done by the Pre-processor)

Expanded Source Code (PR1_1.i)

STEP 3 Compilation (Done by the Compiler)

Relocatable Object Code (PR1_1.obj) Object Code of Library Function

STEP 4 Linking (Done by the Linker)

Executable Code (PR1_1.exe)

STEP 5 Loading / Executing (Done by the Loader)

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.34

◼ STEP 1 - Writing & Saving (Done by an Editor):
➢ The first step is to write & save the C program by using a suitable editor.
➢ The file thus obtained is called the source code. It has the extension .c
(in our case PR1_1.c).

◼ STEP 2 - Pre-processing (Done by the Pre-processor):

➢ In this step the pre-processor expands the source code based upon the
pro-processor directive like #indclude, #define, #ifdef etc.
➢ The expanded source code is stored in an intermediate file with .i
extension (in our case PR1_1.i).
➢ The expanded source code is also in C.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.35

◼ STEP 3 - Compilation (Done by the Compiler):
➢ The C compiler, on receiving the expanded code, does the following:
a) Identifies the syntax error (if any).
b) Displays the errors along with warnings.
c) If the expanded source code is error free, it translates this code
to equivalent relocatable object code (machine-level code).

[NOTE]: Here the word “relocatable” means the program is ready to execute
except for one thing - no specific memory address have yet been assigned to
the code. All the addresses are relative offsets.

➢ The relocatable object code (machine-level code) thus obtained, is

stored in a separate file, called the object file, with .obj extension (in
our case PR1_1.obj).

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.36

◼ STEP 4 - Linking (Done by the Linker): The linker combines different object files
to produce actual executable code. The executable code is stored in a
separate file with .exe extension (in our case PR1_1.exe).

[NOTE]: The Concept of Linking

➢ All most all C programs use a set of pre-defined functions like printf, scanf etc.,
called the library functions. To increase the efficiency, these set of library functions
are pre-complied and stored as object files (binary format), called the library files.

➢ The information about these library files is contained in various header files. For
example, the header file “stdio.h” actually contain the information about all the
I/O library functions like printf, scanf etc.(their prototypes, and in which library
file they are actually located).

➢ We include these header files in our source code (PR1_1.c) through the pre-processor
directive “#include” (e.g., #include <stdio.h>).

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.37

 ➢ When the source code (PR1_1.c) is compiled, the object file (PR1_1.obj) retains this
information present in the header files, along with the machine-level instructions.

➢ The linker on getting this information, searches the corresponding library functions
(e.g., printf) in the mentioned library file. If the library function is found, it links /
joins that library file with the object file (PR1_1.obj) to produce the desired executable
file. On the other hand, if the library functions is not found in that library file or the
library file itself is missing a link error is displayed.

[NOTE]: Other advantages of linking (besides improving the efficiency)

The generality of the linking scheme enables

➢ The uses to build their own library files.
➢ To combine the programs written in different languages (as the object files will be in
the same machine-level language)

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.38

◼ STEP 5 - Loading / Executing (Done by the Loader):
➢ The loader loads the executable file (PR1_1.exe) in memory for execution.
➢ Normally, after calling some platform (OS) specific initialization
functions, main() is called.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.39

Writing, Building & Executing the Program in UNIX Platform

◼ STEP 1: Open a text editor (e.g., vi, emacs etc.) and create a new file PR1_1.c.
This is done by writing the following command in the command prompt:

vi PR1_1.c

This is the command for calling the vi editor and creating the file PR1_1.c. If
the file existed before, it will be loaded, otherwise a new file with this name will
be created. Once the editing is done, save the file.

◼ STEP 2: Compile the file (In UNIX pre-processing and linking is automatically done
during compilation). This is done by writing the following command in the
command prompt:
cc PR1_1.c

Every UNIX system has an inbuilt C compiler, called cc (c compiler). Once this
step is successful, the linker will create the default executable file a.out.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.40

◼ STEP 3: Run the default executable file a.out. This is done by writing the
following command in the command prompt:

a.out

Writing, Building & Executing the Program in WINDOWS Platform

◼ In windows platform there are many IDEs (Integrated Development Environments),

that includes all facilities to edit, build and run a program at one place.
Examples of such IDEs are:
➢ Turbo C++
➢ CodeBlocks

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.41

One More Program

/* PR1_2.c: Program that computes and displays the average of 3 numbers */

#include <stdio.h>

void main()
{
int num1, num2, num3; /* variable declaration */
float avg; /* variable declaration */

printf ("Enter the 1st number: ");

scanf ("%d", &num1);
printf ("Enter the 2nd number: ");
scanf ("%d", &num2);
printf ("Enter the 3rd number: ");
scanf ("%d", &num3);

avg = (num1+num2+num3)/3;

printf("\n\nThe average is: %f\n\n", avg);

}

/* Program Ends */

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.42

Output

Enter the 1st number: 3

Enter the 2nd number: 4
Enter the 3rd number: 6

The average is: 4.000000

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.43

The Same Program Using User-Defined Function

/* PR1_3.c: Program that computes and displays the average of 3 numbers by using
user-defined function*/

#include <stdio.h>

float average (int a, int b, int c); /* Function prototype */

void main()
{
int num1, num2, num3;
float avg;

printf ("Enter the 1st number: ");

scanf ("%d", &num1);
printf ("Enter the 2nd number: ");
scanf ("%d", &num2);
printf ("Enter the 3rd number: ");
scanf ("%d", &num3);

avg = average (num1, num2, num3); /* Function call*/

printf("\n\nThe average is: %f\n\n", avg);

} [Cont.]

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.44

 float average (int a, int b, int c) /* Function definition*/
{
float avg;
avg = (a+b+c)/3;
return avg;
}

/* Program Ends */

Output

Enter the 1st number: 3

Enter the 2nd number: 4
Enter the 3rd number: 6

The average is: 4.000000

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.45

Structure of a C Program

Documentation section

Pre-processor directives section

Global declaration section

main() function section

These 2 sections can be
User-defined functions section interchanged

◼ Documentation Section: It contains a set of comment lines giving the name of

the program, its purpose, the author and other details.

◼ Pre-processor Directive Section: It contains the pre-processor directives like

#include, #define, #ifdef etc.

◼ Global Declaration Section: It contains declaration of global variables (the

variables used by all functions) and function prototypes.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.46

◼ main() Function Section: It contains the main() function.

◼ User-Defined Function Section: It contains a set of user-defined functions

which are either called by main() or other user-defined functions.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.47

Assignments
Complete the experiments given in “Lab Manual - Section 1”.

Dr. N. K. Pani, Dept. of CSEA, IGIT Sarang | 1.48

End of Chapter 1