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C - Program Structure

The document discusses the basic structure of a C program. It provides an example "Hello World" program that consists of preprocessor commands, functions, variables, statements, expressions, and comments. The example program prints "Hello, World!" when compiled and executed. It also describes how to save the code in a file, compile it using gcc, and run the generated a.out executable to display the output.

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ajwa tel
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© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
46 views

C - Program Structure

The document discusses the basic structure of a C program. It provides an example "Hello World" program that consists of preprocessor commands, functions, variables, statements, expressions, and comments. The example program prints "Hello, World!" when compiled and executed. It also describes how to save the code in a file, compile it using gcc, and run the generated a.out executable to display the output.

Uploaded by

ajwa tel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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3/11/23, 10:56 AM C - Program Structure

C - Program Structure

Before we study the basic building blocks of the C programming language, let us look at a bare
minimum C program structure so that we can take it as a reference in the upcoming chapters.

Hello World Example


A C program basically consists of the following parts −

Preprocessor Commands
Functions
Variables
Statements & Expressions
Comments

Let us look at a simple code that would print the words "Hello World" −

 Live Demo
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
/* my first program in C */
printf("Hello, World! \n");

return 0;
}

Let us take a look at the various parts of the above program −

The first line of the program #include <stdio.h> is a preprocessor command, which tells a C
compiler to include stdio.h file before going to actual compilation.

The next line int main() is the main function where the program execution begins.

The next line /*...*/ will be ignored by the compiler and it has been put to add additional
comments in the program. So such lines are called comments in the program.

The next line printf(...) is another function available in C which causes the message "Hello,
World!" to be displayed on the screen.

The next line return 0; terminates the main() function and returns the value 0.

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cprogramming/c_program_structure.htm 1/2
3/11/23, 10:56 AM C - Program Structure

Compile and Execute C Program


Let us see how to save the source code in a file, and how to compile and run it. Following are the
simple steps −

Open a text editor and add the above-mentioned code.

Save the file as hello.c


Open a command prompt and go to the directory where you have saved the file.

Type gcc hello.c and press enter to compile your code.


If there are no errors in your code, the command prompt will take you to the next line and would
generate a.out executable file.

Now, type a.out to execute your program.


You will see the output "Hello World" printed on the screen.

$ gcc hello.c
$ ./a.out
Hello, World!

Make sure the gcc compiler is in your path and that you are running it in the directory containing the
source file hello.c.

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cprogramming/c_program_structure.htm 2/2

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