Getting Started with "C" part 1

C programming is a popular computer programming language which is widely used for system and application software. Despite being fairly old programming language, C programming is widely used because of its efficiency and control. This tutorial is intended for beginners who does not have any prior knowledge or have very little knowledge of computer programming. All basic features of C programming language are included in detail with explanation and output to give you solid platform to understand C programming.

Getting Started With C..

In order to run a C program, you need a compiler. Compiler change source code(code written by programmer) to object code(code that computer understands) and creates executable file. There are many free and professional compilers available. For the sake of this course, GNU GCC compiler is used. All the examples in this course are tested and verified in GNU GCC compiler.

Variables

Variables are memory location in computer's memory to store data. To indicate the memory location, each variable should be given a unique name called identifier. Variable names are just the symbolic representation of a memory location. Examples of variable name: sum, car_no, count etc.

int num;

Here, num is a variable of integer type.

Rules for writing variable name in C

Variable name can be composed of letters (both uppercase and lowercase letters), digits and underscore '_' only.
The first letter of a variable should be either a letter or an underscore. But, it is discouraged to start variable name with an underscore though it is legal. It is because, variable name that starts with underscore can conflict with system names and compiler may complain.
There is no rule for the length of length of a variable. However, the first 31 characters of a variable are discriminated by the compiler. So, the first 31 letters of two variables in a program should be different.

In C programming, you have to declare variable before using it in the program.

Constants

Constants are the terms that can't be changed during the execution of a program. For example: 1, 2.5, "Programming is easy." etc. In C, constants can be classified as:

Integer constants

Integer constants are the numeric constants(constant associated with number) without any fractional part or exponential part. There are three types of integer constants in C language: decimal constant(base 10), octal constant(base 8) and hexadecimal constant(base 16) .
Decimal digits: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Octal digits: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Hexadecimal digits: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F.
For example:

Decimal constants: 0, -9, 22 etc
Octal constants: 021, 077, 033 etc
Hexadecimal constants: 0x7f, 0x2a, 0x521 etc

Notes:

You can use small caps a, b, c, d, e, f instead of uppercase letters while writing a hexadecimal constant.
Every octal constant starts with 0 and hexadecimal constant starts with 0x in C programming.

Floating-point constants

Floating point constants are the numeric constants that has either fractional form or exponent form. For example:

-2.0
0.0000234
-0.22E-5

Note:Here, E-5 represents 10^-5. Thus, -0.22E-5 = -0.0000022.

Character constants

Character constants are the constant which use single quotation around characters. For example: 'a', 'l', 'm', 'F' etc.

Escape Sequences

Sometimes, it is necessary to use newline(enter), tab, quotation mark etc. in the program which either cannot be typed or has special meaning in C programming. In such cases, escape sequence are used. For example: \n is used for newline. The backslash( \ ) causes "escape" from the normal way the characters are interpreted by the compiler.

Escape Sequences
Escape Sequences	Character
\b	Backspace
\f	Form feed
\n	Newline
\r	Return
\t	Horizontal tab
\v	Vertical tab
\\	Backslash
\'	Single quotation mark
\"	Double quotation mark
\?	Question mark
\0	Null character

String constants

String constants are the constants which are enclosed in a pair of double-quote marks. For example:

"good"                  //string constant
""                     //null string constant
"      "               //string constant of six white space
"x"                    //string constant having single character.
"Earth is round\n"         //prints string with newline

Enumeration constants

Keyword enum is used to declare enumeration types. For example:

enum color {yellow, green, black, white};

Here, the variable name is color and yellow, green, black and white are the enumeration constants having value 0, 1, 2 and 3 respectively by default. For more information about enumeration, visit page: Enumeration Types.

In C, variable(data) should be declared before it can be used in program. Data types are the keywords, which are used for assigning a type to a variable.

Data types in C

Fundamental Data Types
- Integer types
- Floating Type
- Character types
Derived Data Types
- Arrays
- Pointers
- Structures
- Enumeration

Syntax for declaration of a variable

data_type variable_name;

Integer data types

Keyword int is used for declaring the variable with integer type. For example:

int var1;

Here, var1 is a variable of type integer.
The size of int is either 2 bytes(In older PC's) or 4 bytes. If you consider an integer having size of 4 byte( equal to 32 bits), it can take 2³² distinct states as: -2³¹,-2³¹+1, ...,-2, -1, 0, 1, 2, ..., 2³¹-2, 2³¹-1
Similarly, int of 2 bytes, it can take 2¹⁶ distinct states from -2¹⁵ to 2¹⁵-1. If you try to store larger number than 2³¹-1, i.e,+2147483647 and smaller number than -2³¹, i.e, -2147483648, program will not run correctly.

Floating types

Variables of floating types can hold real values(numbers) such as: 2.34, -9.382 etc. Keywords either float or double is used for declaring floating type variable. For example:

float var2;
double var3;

Here, both var2 and var3 are floating type variables.
In C, floating values can be represented in exponential form as well. For example:

float var3=22.442e2

Difference between float and double

Generally the size of float(Single precision float data type) is 4 bytes and that of double(Double precision float data type) is 8 bytes. Floating point variables has a precision of 6 digits whereas the the precision of double is 14 digits.

Note: Precision describes the number of significant decimal places that a floating values carries.

Character types

Keyword char is used for declaring the variable of character type. For example:

char var4='h';

Here, var4 is a variable of type character which is storing a character 'h'.
The size of char is 1 byte. The character data type consists of ASCII characters. Each character is given a specific value. For example:

For, 'a', value =97
For, 'b', value=98
For, 'A', value=65
For, '&', value=33
For, '2', value=49

Here is the list of all ASCII characters in C language.

Qualifiers

Qualifiers alters the meaning of base data types to yield a new data type.
Size qualifiers:
Size qualifiers alters the size of basic data type. The keywords long and short are two size qualifiers. For example:

long int i;

The size of int is either 2 bytes or 4 bytes but, when long keyword is used, that variable will be either 4 bytes of 8 bytes. Learn more about long keyword in C programming. If the larger size of variable is not needed then, short keyword can be used in similar manner as long keyword.
Sign qualifiers:
Whether a variable can hold only positive value or both values is specified by sign qualifiers. Keywords signed and unsigned are used for sign qualifiers.

unsigned int a;
// unsigned variable can hold zero and positive values only

It is not necessary to define variable using keyword signed because, a variable is signed by default. Sign qualifiers can be applied to only int and char data types. For a int variable of size 4 bytes it can hold data from -2³¹ to 2³¹-1 but, if that variable is defined unsigned, it can hold data from 0 to 2³² -1.
Constant qualifiers
Constant qualifiers can be declared with keyword const. An object declared by const cannot be modified.

const int p=20;

The value of p cannot be changed in the program.
Volatile qualifiers:
A variable should be declared volatile whenever its value can be changed by some external sources outside program. Keyword volatile is used to indicate volatile variable.

ANSI standard has defined many library functions for input and output in C language. Functions printf() and scanf() are the most commonly used to display out and take input respectively. Let us consider an example:


#include <stdio.h>      //This is needed to run printf() function.
int main()
{
    printf("C Programming");  //displays the content inside quotation
    return 0;
}

Output

C Programming

Explanation of How this program works

Every program starts from main() function.
printf() is a library function to display output which only works if #include<stdio.h>is included at the beginning.
Here, stdio.h is a header file (standard input output header file) and #include is command to paste the code from the header file when necessary. When compiler encounters printf() function and doesn't find stdio.h header file, compiler shows error.
Code return 0; indicates the end of program. You can ignore this statement but, it is good programming practice to use return 0;.

I/O of integers in C


#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
    int c=5;
    printf("Number=%d",c);
    return 0;
}

Output

Number=5

Inside quotation of printf() there, is a conversion format string "%d" (for integer). If this conversion format string matches with remaining argument,i.e, c in this case, value of c is displayed.


#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
    int c;
    printf("Enter a number\n");
    scanf("%d",&c);  
    printf("Number=%d",c);
    return 0;
}

Output

Enter a number
4
Number=4

The scanf() function is used to take input from user. In this program, the user is asked a input and value is stored in variable c. Note the '&' sign before c. &c denotes the address of c and value is stored in that address.

I/O of floats in C


#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
    float a;
    printf("Enter value: ");
    scanf("%f",&a);
    printf("Value=%f",a);    //%f is used for floats instead of %d
    return 0;
}

Output

Enter value: 23.45
Value=23.450000

Conversion format string "%f" is used for floats to take input and to display floating value of a variable.

I/O of characters and ASCII code

#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
    char var1;
    printf("Enter character: ");
    scanf("%c",&var1);     
    printf("You entered %c.",var1);  
    return 0;
}

Output

Enter character: g
You entered g.

Conversion format string "%c" is used in case of characters.

ASCII code

When character is typed in the above program, the character itself is not recorded a numeric value(ASCII value) is stored. And when we displayed that value by using "%c", that character is displayed.


#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
    char var1;
    printf("Enter character: ");
    scanf("%c",&var1);     
    printf("You entered %c.\n",var1);  
/* \n prints the next line(performs work of enter). */
    printf("ASCII value of %d",var1);  
    return 0;
}

Output

Enter character:
g
103

When, 'g' is entered, ASCII value 103 is stored instead of g.
You can display character if you know ASCII code only. This is shown by following example.


#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
    int var1=69;
    printf("Character of ASCII value 69: %c",var1);
    return 0;
}

Output

Character of ASCII value 69: E

The ASCII value of 'A' is 65, 'B' is 66 and so on to 'Z' is 90. Similarly ASCII value of 'a' is 97, 'b' is 98 and so on to 'z' is 122.
Click here to learn about complete reference of ASCII code.

More about Input/Output of floats and Integer

Variations in Output for integer an floats

Integer and floating-points can be displayed in different formats in C programming as:

#include<stdio.h>
int main(){
    printf("Case 1:%6d\n",9876);      
/*  Prints the number right justified within 6 columns  */
    printf("Case 2:%3d\n",9876);      
/* Prints the number to be right justified to 3 columns but, there are 4 digits so number is not right justified  */
    printf("Case 3:%.2f\n",987.6543);
/* Prints the number rounded to two decimal places */
    printf("Case 4:%.f\n",987.6543);
/* Prints the number rounded to 0 decimal place, i.e, rounded to integer */
    printf("Case 5:%e\n",987.6543);
/* Prints the number in exponential notation(scientific notation) */
    return 0;
}

Output

Case 1:  9876
Case 2:9876
Case 3:987.65
Case 4:988
Case 5:9.876543e+002

Variations in Input for integer and floats

#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
    int a,b;
    float c,d;
    printf("Enter two intgers: ");
/*Two integers can be taken from user at once as below*/
    scanf("%d%d",&a,&b);
    printf("Enter intger and floating point numbers: ");
/*Integer and floating point number can be taken at once from user as below*/
    scanf("%d%f",&a,&c);
    return 0;
}

Similarly, any number of input can be taken at once from user.

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