HOW C PROGRAMMING WORKS

The C programming language is a popular and widely used programming language for creating computer programs. Programmers around the world embrace C because it gives maximum control and efficiency to the programmer.

WHAT IS C?

C is a computer programming language. That means that you can use C to create lists of instructions for a computer to follow. C is one of thousands of programming languages currently in use. C has been around for several decades and has won widespread acceptance because it gives programmers maximum control and efficiency. C is an easy language to learn. It is a bit more cryptic in its style than some other languages, but you get beyond that fairly quickly.

WHAT IS C?
C is what we call a compiled language. This means that once you write your C program, you must run it through a C compiler to turn your program into an executable one that the computer can run (execute). The C program is the human-readable form, while the executable that comes out of the compiler is the machine-readable and executable form. To be able to write and run a C program, you must have access to a C compiler. If you are using a UNIX machine (for example, if you are writing CGI scripts in C on your host's UNIX computer, or if you are a student working on a lab's UNIX machine), the C compiler is available for free. It is called either "cc" or "gcc" and is available on the command line. If you are a student, then the school will likely provide you with a compiler -- find out what the school is using and learn about it. If you are working at home on a Windows machine, you are going to need to download a free C compiler or purchase a commercial compiler. A widely used commercial compiler is Microsoft's Visual C++ environment (it compiles both C and C++ programs). Unfortunately, this program costs several hundred dollars. If you do not have hundreds of dollars to spend on a commercial compiler, then you can use one of the free compilers available on the Web. There are downloadable compilers on the net. Try searching and you ll find one. We will start at the beginning with an extremely simple C program and build up from there. You will simply use any compiler available in there. Let's get started!

THE SIMPLEST C PROGRAM

Let's start with the simplest possible C program and use it both to understand the basics of C and the C compilation process. Type the following program into a standard text editor (vi or emacs on UNIX, Notepad on Windows or TeachText on a Macintosh). Then save the program to a file named samp.c or .cpp. If you leave off .c, you will probably get some sort of error when you compile it, so make sure you remember the .c. Also, make sure that your editor does not automatically append some extra characters (such as .txt) to the name of the file. Here's the first program:

THE SIMPLEST C PROGRAM

Position When you enter this program, position #include so that the pound sign is in column 1 (the far left side). Otherwise, the spacing and indentation can be any way you like it. The spacing and indentation shown here is a good example to follow. On a UNIX machine, type gcc samp.c -o samp (if gcc does not work, try cc). This line invokes the C compiler called gcc, asks it to compile samp.c and asks it to place the executable file it creates under the name samp. To run the program, type samp (or, on some UNIX machines, ./samp). On a DOS or Windows machine using DJGPP, at an MS-DOS prompt type gcc samp.c -o samp.exe. This line invokes the C compiler called gcc, asks it to compile samp.c and asks it to place the executable file it creates under the name samp.exe. To run the program, type samp. If you are working with some other compiler or development system, read and follow the directions for the compiler you are using to compile and execute the program. You should see the output "This is an output from my first program!" when you run the program. If you mistype the program, it will either not compile or not run. If the program does not compile or does not run correctly, edit it again and see where you went wrong in your typing. Fix the error and try again.

#include <stdio.h> int main() { printf("This is an output from my first program!\n"); return 0; }
When executed, this program instructs the computer to print out the line "This is output from my first program!" -then the program quits. You can't get much simpler than that! To compile this code, take the following steps:

USING C AND C++

You can save your file with a .cpp. Also, make sure that your directories are in the drive you are using. In our school, we use TurboC++ It is user-friendly Try it. This is the link where I got my tutorial. ( )You can also follow the download link here if you want. Do not be worried if you get warnings when you try to run your program. If you commit mistakes in your pseudocode, the compiler will display messages like statement missing . Just go back to your codes and find the error. Correct it and see if your program is a success.

THE SIMPLEST C PROGRAM: WHAT'S HAPPENING?

Let's walk through this program and start to see what the different lines are doing This C program starts with #include <stdio.h>. This line includes the "standard I/O library" into your program. The standard I/O library lets you read input from the keyboard (called "standard in"), write output to the screen (called "standard out"), process text files stored on the disk, and so on. It is an extremely useful library. C has a large number of standard libraries like stdio, including string, time and math libraries. A library is simply a package of code that someone else has written to make your life easier (we'll discuss libraries a bit later). The line int main() declares the main function. Every C program must have a function named main somewhere in the code. We will learn more about functions shortly. At run time, program execution starts at the first line of the main function. In C, the { and } symbols mark the beginning and end of a block of code. In this case, the block of code making up the main function contains two lines. The printf statement in C allows you to send output to standard out (for us, the screen). The portion in quotes is called the format string and describes how the data is to be formatted when printed. The format string can contain string literals such as "This is output from my first program!," symbols for carriage returns (\n), and operators as placeholders for variables (see below). If you are using UNIX, you can type man 3 printf to get complete documentation for the printf function. If not, see the documentation included with your compiler for details about the printf function. The return 0; line causes the function to return an error code of 0 (no error) to the shell that started execution. More on this capability a bit later.

BS Computer Science University of Sto. Tomas Sto.

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