INSTITUTE OF COMPUTING STUDIES AND LIBRARY

INFORMATION SCIENCE

Language
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INFORMATION SCIENCE
Natural language vs programming
language
Language is a tool for expressing and
recording human thoughts
• At least one language accompanies
us throughout our whole lives – it's our
native language, our mother tongue
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Natural language vs programming
language
Programming Language is defined by a
set of certain rigid rules, much more
inflexible than any natural language.
Any program we write must be correct in
these three ways: lexically, syntactically
and semantically.
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Natural language vs programming
language
• Lexicon - symbols (letters, digits,
punctuation marks, and so on) that could
be used in the language
• Syntax - the appropriate ways of collating
the symbols
• Semantics - to be able to recognize the
meaning of every statement expressed in
the given language
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Natural language vs programming
language
• A computer can only follow commands
• Instruction List - a complete set of well-
known commands
• High-Level Programming Languages -
bridge between the human language
(natural language) and the computer
language (machine language)
• It is at least somewhat similar to a natural
language
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Compilation
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Compilation
• The process of translating from a high-level
language into a machine language is called
compilation.
• It is made by a specialized computer
program called a compiler.
• A program (which in fact is just text) is
called the source code, while the file which
contains the source is called the source
file.
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Compilation
• It is important to store the source code to
a text file that is not formatted
• If the source code is in the C language, it
is important to store it in a file that have a
“.c” suffix.
• Ex.: “program.c”, “myfile.c”
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Compilation
• After compiling a source code without an
error, the compiler will then make an
executable file.
• Unix/Linux system will create an output
file named “a.out” by default
• MS Windows® can give this file the same
name as the source file, only changing the
suffix from “.c” to “.exe”.
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About “C”
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About C
It was created in
the early
seventies of the
twentieth
century by
Dennis Ritchie
while he was
working in Bell
Laboratories
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About C
• The “C” language is one of a huge number
of programming languages currently in
use, and one of the oldest.
• There are many other programming
languages widely used - like “C++”, “C#”,
Perl, Java or JavaScript
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About C
• C is the so-called general-purpose
programming language
• It’s best if used for coding drivers,
embedded applications or operating
systems.
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INFORMATION SCIENCE

A Simple Program
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A Simple Program
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
puts(“Hello World");
return 0;
}
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A Simple Program
Steps that the program #include <stdio.h>

performed: int main()

1. to start; {
puts(“Hello World");
2. to write the text on return 0;
the screen; }
3. to stop OUTPUT:
Hello World
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A Simple Program
• This sort of structured and semi-formal
description of each step of the program is
called an algorithm.
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A Simple Program
#include <stdio.h>

• This is a preprocessor directive

• #include is the directive that calls upon
the header file named stdio.h
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A Simple Program
int main()
{
puts(“Hello World");
return 0;
}
• This is the main function
• The program starts here
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A Simple Program
int main()
{
puts(“Hello World");
return 0;
}
• puts (put string) function displays the
string of word/s that is inside the
parenthesis and quotation marks
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A Simple Program
int main()
{
puts(“Hello World");
return 0;
}
• puts(“Wakanda”) will output Wakanda
• puts(“Hi”) will output Hi
• This is called function invocation or
function call
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A Simple Program
int main()
{
puts(“Hello World");
return 0;
}
• return ends the function execution
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Numbers
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Numbers And How The Computers See
Them
In modern computing, there are two main types of
numbers:
• Integers(int)-those which are devoid of
the fractional part
• floating-point numbers (float)-
contains fractional part or decimal point
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Numbers And How The Computers See
Them
Both of these kinds of numbers significantly
differ in:
• how they are stored in a computer’s
memory
• the range of acceptable values

The distinction between these differences is

called type or data type
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Numbers And How The Computers See
Them
Normally we separate numbers that are
larger than 999 with a comma(EX.:
123,456,789), but in the C language,
punctuations can cause errors.

It is important to write numbers as it is

without separators, with the exception of
decimal points.
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Variables
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Variables
• Variables can be considered as
containers of value
• Variables have always have three things:
• type
• name/identifier
• value
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Naming a Variable
• the name of the variable can only be
composed of upper-case or lower-case
Latin letters, digits and the character “_”
(underscore)
• the name of the variable must begin with a
letter
• the underline/underscore character is a
letter
• upper- and lower-case letters are treated
as different (alice is different from ALICE)
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Naming a Variable
*Note that the same restrictions apply to function names.

Here are some correct, but not always convenient variable

names:
variable
i
t10
Exchange_Rate
counter
DaysToTheEndOfTheWorld
TheNameOfAVariableWhichIsSoLongThatYouWillNotBeAb
leToWriteItWithoutMistakes
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Naming a Variable
And now some incorrect names:

10t (does not begin with a letter)

Adiós_Señora (contains illegal characters)
Exchange Rate (contains a space)
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Naming a Variable
There are also different case styles such as:
• camelCase
• Consists of multiple words and no spaces.
• First letter of the first word must be in lower-case
• First letter of succeeding words are in upper-case
• EX.:
• firstName
• containerVariable
• finalVariableName
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Variable Types
The type is an attribute that uniquely defines
which values can be stored inside the
variable.
• you can only put in a value that is compatible with
the variable's type.
• The variable comes into existence as a result of a
declaration.
• Type variableName;
• Type variableName = value;
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Declaring Variables
Examples of declaring a variable:

int num1;
float decimalNumber;
char my_character;
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Declaring Variables
Examples of declaring multiple variable in one
line:

int num1, num2, num3;

float decimalNumber, decimal2;
char charB, charC, charA;
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Declaring Variables
Examples of declaring a variable and assigning a
value:

int num1 = 3;
float decimalNumber = 1.2;
char my_character = ‘b’;
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Declaring Variables
Examples of declaring a variable and assigning an
expression:

int num1 = 3 + 1;
float decimalNumber = 1.2 – 3.51;
INSTITUTE OF COMPUTING STUDIES AND LIBRARY
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Declaring Variables
Examples of declaring a variable and assigning a
variable:

int num1 = 3;
int num2 = num1;
int num3 = num2 + num1;
Int num4 = num3 – 5;
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Reserved Keywords
There are some words
that play special roles
in the C language.
They’re reserved
because you mustn't
use them as names:
neither for your
variables, nor
functions, nor any
other named entities
you want to create.
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Reserved Keywords
You can’t use int as a
variable name but,
though it is not
recommended, you can
use INT as an
identifier. Why is that
the case?
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Comments
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Comments
The developer may want to put in a few words
addressed not to the compiler but to humans:
• to explain to other readers of the code how the
tricks used in the code work
• to tell the meanings of variables and functions
• to keep stored information on who the author is
and when the program was written
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Comments
Good and responsible developers describe each
function; in particular, they explain the role of
the parameters, the value the function
returns as a result and what the function
actually does.
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Comments
Inline Comments
// This is a comment
// This is also a comment

Multiline Comments
/*This is a multiline comment
Whatever written inside here will not affect the code
It’s like magic!*/
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Comments
For example:

/* This program takes age input from the user It stores it in the age variable and,
print the value using printf() */

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {

// create integer variable

int age = 25;

// print the age variable

printf("Age: %d", age);

return 0;
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Comments
For example:

/******************************
This is another multiline comment
We used a slash and 30 asterisks to signal the start of this comment
You can write anything here as long as you don’t type an extra asterisk
And remember to end the comment with the same number of asterisks
******************************/
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Comments
For example:

#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
//puts(“Hello Word”)
return 0;
}

What will this output?