Module-1

Introduction to C
4.1 Introduction
✓ C is a high-level programming language.
✓ The programming language C was developed in the early 1970s by Dennis Ritchie at Bell
Laboratories to be used by the UNIX operating system.
✓ It was named C because many of its features were derived from an earlier language called B.
✓ Although C was designed for implementing system software, it was later on widely used for
developing portable application software.
✓ C is one of the most popular programming languages.
✓ It is being used on several different software platforms.
✓ In a nutshell, there are a few computer architectures for which a C compiler does not exist.
✓ It is a good idea to learn C because few other programming languages such as C++ and Java are
also based on C which means you will be able to learn them more easily in the future.

Figure 4.1. Taxonomy of C Language

4.2 Characteristics of C
C is a robust language whose rich set of built-in functions and operators can be used to write
complex programs. The C compiler combines the features of assembly languages and high-level

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languages, which makes it best suited for writing system software as well as business packages.
Some basic characteristics of C language that define the language and have led to its popularity as
a programming language are listed below:
✓ C is a high-level programming language, which enables the programmer to concentrate on the
problem at hand and not worry about the machine code on which the program would be run.
✓ Small size: C has only 32 keywords. This makes it relatively easy to learn as compared to other
languages.
✓ C makes extensive use of function calls.
✓ C is well suited for structured programming. In this programming approach, C enables users
to think of a problem in terms of functions/modules where the collection of all the modules
makes up a complete program. This feature facilitates ease in program debugging, testing, and
maintenance.
✓ Unlike PASCAL it supports loose typing (as a character can be treated as an integer and vice
versa).
✓ Structured language as the code can be organized as a collection of one or more functions
✓ Stable language: ANSI C was created in 1983 and since then it has not been revised.
✓ Quick language as a well written C program is likely to be as quick as or quicker than a
program written in any other language.
✓ Facilitates low-level programming.
✓ Core language: C is a core language as many other programming languages (like C++, Java,
Perl, etc) are based on C.
✓ C is a portable language, i.e., a C program written one computer can be run on another
compute with little or no modification.
✓ C is an extensible language as it enables the user his own functions to the C library.
✓ C is often treated as the second best language for any given programming task.

4.3 Uses of C
C is a very simple language that is widely used by software professionals around the globe. The
uses of C language can be summarized as follows:
✓ C is a very simple language that is widely used by software professionals around the globe.
✓ C is primarily used for system programming. The portability, efficiency, the ability to access
specific hardware addresses and low runtime.
✓ The compiler, libraries and interpreters of other programming languages are often
implemented in C.

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✓ For portability and convenience reasons, C is sometimes used as an intermediate language for
implementation of other languages. Major parts of popular operating systems like windows,
UNIX, Linux are still written in C.
✓ C is widely used to implement end-user applications.
✓ Mobile devices like cellular phones and palmtops consisting of microprocessor, operating
system and some applications are written in C.
✓ Common consumer devices like microwave ovens, washing machines and digital cameras are
consisting of many programs which are written in C language.
✓ Several professional 3D computer games and many popular gaming frameworks have been
built using C language.

4.4 Basic Concepts of a C Program or Structure of a C Program

✓ The basic concepts of a C program can be explained by writing the structure of a C program.
✓ The structure of a C program is nothing but the rules that are to be followed while writing a C
program.
✓ The structure of a C program is shown below:

[Comments]
[Preprocessor Directives]
[Global Declarations]
[Function Declarations]
[Function Definitions]
main()
{
[Declaration Section]
[Executable Section]
}

1. Comments
✓ At the beginning of each program is a comment with a short description of the problem to
be solved.
✓ We can use the comments anywhere in the program.
✓ The comments section is optional.
Ex: 1. /* Program1: To find the sum of two numbers*/
2. // Program2: To calculate the area and perimeter of circle
✓ The symbol /* and ends with */ represents the multiline comment.
✓ The symbol // can also be used for representing single line comment.

2. Preprocessor directives
✓ The preprocessor statements start with # symbol.
✓ These statements instruct the compiler to include some of the files in the beginning of the
program.
Ex: #include<stdio.h>
#include<math.h>
are the files that the compiler includes in the beginning of the program.
✓ The line containing #include<stdio.h> tells the compiler to allow our program to perform
standard input and output ‘stdio’ operations.

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✓ The ‘#include’ directive tells the compiler that we will be using parts of the standard
function library.
✓ Information about these functions is contained in a series of ‘header files’ (stdio.h).
✓ .h says this file is a header file.
✓ The pointed brackets < and > tell the compiler the exact location of this header file.
✓ Using the preprocessor directives the user can define the constants also.
Ex: #define PI 3.142

3. Global Declarations
✓ The variables that are declared above (before) the main program are called global variables.
✓ The global variables can be accessed anywhere in the main program and in all the other
functions.

4. Function declarations and Definitions

✓ In this section the functions are declared.
✓ Immediately after the functions are declared, the functions can be defined.

5. The program header: main()

✓ Every program must have a main function.
✓ Always the C program begins its execution from main.

6. Body of the program

✓ After the header or top lines is a set of braces ({ and }) containing a series of ‘C’
statements which comprise the ‘body’- this is called the action portion of the program.
Ex: #include<stdio.h>
main()
{
/* action portion of the program*/
}
✓ The body of the program contains two essential parts:
1. Declaration section
2. Executable section

7. Declaration section
✓ The variables that are used inside the function should be declared in the declaration
section.
✓ For example, consider the declaration shown below:
int sum=0;
int a;
float b;
Here, the variable sum is declared as an integer variable and it is initialized to zero. The variable
a is declared as an integer variable whereas the variable b is declared as a floating point
variable.

8. Executable section
✓ They represent the instructions given to the computer to perform a specific task.
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✓ The instructions can be input/output statements, expressions to be evaluated, simple
assignment statements, control statements such as if statement, for statement etc.
✓ Each executable statement ends with “;”.

Example: Write a C program to display “Hello World”.

#include<stdio.h>
void main()
{
printf(“Hello World”);
}

4.5 Files used in a C Program

A C program uses four types of files as follows:

Figure 4.2. Files in a C program

1. Source Code File
✓ This file includes the source code of the program.
✓ The extension for these kind of files are '.c'.
✓ It defines the main and many more functions written in C.
✓ main() is the starting point of the program. It may also contain other source code files.

2. Header Files
✓ They have an extension '.h'.
✓ They contain the C function declarations and macro definitions that are shared between
various source files.

Advantages of header files:

1. At times the programmer may want to use the same subroutines for different programs. To do
this, he would just compile the code of the subroutine once and link to the resulting object file
in any file in which the functionalities of this subroutine are required.

2. At times the programmer may want to change or add the subroutines and reflect those
changes in all the programs. For doing this, he will have to only change the source file for the
subroutines, recompile the source code and then recompile and re-link the program.
This tells us that including a header file will make it easier at all levels of the program. If we need
to modify anything then changes are made only in the subroutines after which all the changes will
be reflected.

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Standard header files
✓ C provides us with some standard header files which are available easily.

Common standard header files are:

✓ string.h – used for handling string functions.
✓ string.h – used for handling string functions.
✓ stdlib.h – used for some miscellaneous functions.
✓ stdio.h – used for giving standardized input and output.
✓ math.h – used for mathematical functions.
✓ alloc.h – used for dynamic memory allocation.
✓ conio.h – used for clearing the screen.

✓ The header files are added at the start of the source code so that they can be used by more than
one function of the same file.

3. Object files
✓ They are the files that are generated by the compiler as the source code file is processed.
✓ These files generally contain the binary code of the function definitions.
✓ The object file is used by the linker for producing an executable file for combining the object
files together. It has a '.o' extension.

4. Executable file
✓ This file is generated by the linker.
✓ Various object files are linked by the linker for producing a binary file which will be
executed directly.
✓ They have an '.exe' extension.

4.6 Compiling and Executing C Programs

✓ C is a compiled language.
✓ The programming process starts with creating a source file that consists of the statements of the
program written in C language. This source file usually contains ASCII characters and can be
produced with a text editor, such as Windows notepad, or in an Integrated Design Environment.
✓ The source file is then processed by a special program called a compiler.
✓ The compiler translates the source code into an object code.
✓ The object code contains the machine instructions for the CPU, and calls to the operating
system API (Application Programming Interface).
✓ However, even the object file is not an executable file. Therefore, in the next step, the object
file is processed with another special program called a linker.
✓ While there is a different compiler for every individual language, the same linker is used for
object files regardless of the original language in which the new program was written. The
output of the linker is an executable or runnable file. The process is shown in Figure 4.3.

Figure 4.3. Overview of compilation and execution process

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✓ In C language programs, there are two kinds of source files. In addition to the main (.c) source
file, which contains executable statements there are also header (.h) source files.
✓ Every C program uses standard header files, which are written as part of the source code for
modular C programs.
✓ The compilation process shown in Figure 4.4 is done in two steps. In the first step, the
preprocessor program reads the source file as text, and produces another text file as output.
The output of the preprocessor is a text file which does not contain any preprocessor statements.
This file is ready to be processed by the compiler.

Figure 4.4. Preprocessing before compilation

✓ The linker combines the object file with library routines (supplied with the compiler) to
produce the final executable file.
✓ In modular programming, the source code is divided into two or more source files. All these
source files are compiled separately thereby producing multiple object files. These object files
are combined by the linker to produce an executable file (Figure 4.5).

Figure 4.5. Modular programming-the complete compilation and execution process

4.7 Using Comments

✓ Many a time the meaning or the purpose of the file code is not clear to the reader.
✓ Therefore it is a good programming practice to place some comments in the code to help
the reader understand the code clearly.
✓ Comments are just a way of explaining what a program does.
✓ It is merely an internal program documentation.

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✓ The compiler ignores the comments when forming the object file means that the comments
are non-executable statements.
✓ C supports two types of comments.
// is used to comment a single statement. This is known as a line comment. A line comment
can be placed anywhere on the line and it does not require to be specifically ended as the end of
the line automatically ends the line.
/* is used to comment multiple statements. A /* is ended with */ and all statements that lie
within these characters are commented. This type of comment is known as block comment.

4.8 C Tokens
✓ Tokens are the basic building blocks in C language.
✓ A token is the smallest individual unit in a C program.
✓ This means that a program is constructed using a combination of these tokens.
✓ There are six main types of tokens in C as shown below:

1. Keywords:
✓ Keywords are the tokens which have predefined meaning in C language, whose meaning
cannot be changed by the user.
✓ All keywords are basically a sequence of characters that have a fixed meaning.
✓ They are also called reserved words.
✓ C Keywords are case sensitive. Therefore all C keywords must be written in small letters.
int, float, if, while, void etc are valid keywords.
Int, Float, IF, VOID etc are invalid keywords. (They are written using capital letters).

List of keywords:
✓ There are total 32 keywords in C language as shown below.
auto double int struct
break else long switch
case enum register typedef
char extern return union
const float short unsigned
continue for signed void
default goto sizeof volatile
do if static while

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2. Variables: A variable is a data item whose value changes during the execution of program.
Ex: int a,b,sum;

3. Constants: A constant is a data item which will not change during the execution of a
program.
Ex: #define PI 3.142

4. Strings: String is an array of characters and terminated by NULL character which is denoted by
‘\0’.
Ex: char name[21];

5. Operators: Operator is a symbol (or token) that specifies the operation to be performed on
various types of data.
Ex: Arithmetic operators (+,-,*,/), Relational operators (&&,||,!), Logical operators ( >,>=,<,<=)
and Assignment operator (=) etc.

6. Special characters: [ ], { }, ( ) etc. used in the program to execute the code correctly and helps
to write a complex codes by special symbols.

4.9 CHARACTER SET IN C

✓ Like in natural languages, computer languages also use a character set that defines the
fundamental units used to represent information.
✓ In C, a character means any letter from English alphabet, a digit or a special symbol used to
represent information.
✓ These characters when combined together form tokens that act as basic building blocks of a C
program.
✓ The character set of C can therefore be given as:
a. English alphabet: Include both lower case (a z) as well as upper case (A Z) letters
b. Digits: Include numerical digits from 0 to 9
c. Special characters: Include symbols such as, % & ) < > * S / ) [ " etc.,
d. White space characters: These characters are used to print a blank space on the screen.
They are shown in Figure 4.6.

Figure 4.6. White space characters in C

e. Escape sequence: ‘\n’ is an escape sequence and represents a newline character. It is used to
print the message on a new line on the screen. Like the newline character, the other escape
sequences supported by C language are shown in Table 4.1.

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 Table 4.1: Escape sequences

4.10 Identifiers
✓ Identifiers help us to identify data and other objects in the program.
✓ Identifiers are basically the names given to program elements such as variables, arrays, and
functions.
✓ Identifiers may consist of sequence of letters, numerals, or underscores.

Rules for Forming ldentifier Names

Some rules have to be followed while forming identifier names. They are as follows:
✓ Identifiers cannot include any special characters or punctuation marks (like #, s, ^, ?, ., etc.)
except the underscore ‘_’.
✓ There cannot be two successive underscores.
✓ Keywords cannot be used as identifiers.
✓ The case of alphabetic characters that form the identifier name is significant. For example,
‘FIRST’ is different from ‘first’ and ‘First’.
✓ Identifiers must begin with a letter or an underscore. However, use of underscore as the first
character must be avoided because several compiler-defined identifiers in the standard C library
have underscore as their first character.
✓ Identifiers can be of any reasonable length. They should not contain more than 31 characters.
They can actually be longer than 31, but the compiler looks at only the first 31 characters of the
name.

Examples of valid identifiers include:

roll_number, marks, name, emp_number, basic_pay, HRA, DA, dept_code, DeptCode, RollNo,
EMP_NO

Examples of invalid identifiers include:

23 student, %marks, @name, #emp_number, basic.pay, -HRA, (DA), &dept_code, auto

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4.11 Basic Data types in C and Sizes
✓ The data type defines the type of data stored in a memory location.
✓ The data type determines how much memory should be allocated for a variable.
✓ The data types that can be manipulated by machine instructions are called ‘basic or primitive
data types’.

i. int:
✓ An int is a keyword which is used for defining integers in C language.
✓ Using int the programmer can inform the compiler that the data associated with this
should be treated as integer.
✓ Using ‘int’ compiler determines the size of the data (2 bytes) and reserve space in memory
to store the data.
✓ Integer data types namely:
1. short int 2. int 3.long int

Type Size
short int 2 bytes
int 2 bytes
long int 4 bytes
Ex: int a,b,c;

ii. float:
✓ A float is a keyword which is used to define floating point numbers in C language.
✓ The programmer can inform the compiler that the data associated with this keyword
should be treated as floating point number.
✓ The default precision of floating point number is 6 digits after dot(.).
Size of float
16-bit Machine 4 bytes
32-bit Machine 8 bytes

Ex: float x,y,z;

iii. double:
✓ It is a keyword which is used to define long floating point numbers in C language.
✓ The default precision of floating point number is 14 digits after dot(.).
Size of double
16-bit Machine 8 bytes
32-bit Machine 16 bytes
Ex: double p,q,r;

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iv. char:
✓ It is a keyword which is used to define single character or a sequence of characters called
String in C language.
✓ Using this keyword, the compiler determines the size of the data and reserve space in
memory to store the data.
✓ Each character stored in the memory is associated with a unique value called an ASCII
(American Standards Code for Information Interchange).
Size of char Range of Unsigned char Range of Signed char
16/32-bit Machine 1 byte 0 to 255 -128 to +127

Ex: char ch; // ch variable stores a single character Ex: ch= ‘a’;
char s[20]; // s variable stores a string(group of characters) Ex: s= “jitdvg”;

v. void:
✓ It is an empty data type, since no value is associated with this data type.
✓ It does not occupy any space in the memory.
Size of void Range
16/32-bit Machine 0 No value

Ex: void main( )

{

}
It is primarily used in three cases:
✓ To specify the return type of a function (when the function returns no value)
✓ To specify the parameters of the function (when the function accepts no arguments from the
caller)
✓ To create generic pointers.

4.12 Constants
✓ A constant is a data item which will not change during the execution of a program.
or
Constants are identifiers whose values do not change.
✓ While values of variables can be changed at any time, values of constants can never be changed.
Constants are used to define fixed values like mathematical constant pi or the charge on an
electron so that their value does not get changed in the program even by mistake.
✓ C allows the programmer to specify constants of integer type, floating point type, character
type, and string type.
✓ The constants cannot be modified in the program.

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4.12.1 Types of Constants
1. Integer Constants
✓ A constant of integer type consists of a sequence of digits.
✓ For example, 1, 34, 567, 8907 are valid integer constants.
✓ Integer literals can be expressed in decimal, octal or hexadecimal notation.
✓ By default an integer is expressed in decimal notation. Decimal integers consists of a set of
digits 0 through 9, preceded with an optional + or – sign. Example: 123, -123, +123, and 0.
✓ An integer constant preceded by a zero (0) is an octal number. Octal integers consist of a set
of digits, 0 through 7. Example: 012, 0, 01234.
✓ An integer constant is expressed in hexadecimal notation if it is preceded with 0x or 0X.
Hexadecimal numbers contain digits from 0-9 and letters A through F, which represent
numbers 10 through 15. Example: Ox12, Ox7F, OxABCD, Ox1A3B.

2. Floating Point Constants

✓ A floating point constant consists of an integer part, a decimal point, a fractional part, and
an exponent field containing an e or E (e means exponent) followed by an integer where the
fraction part and integer part are a sequence of digits. However, it is not necessary that every
floating point constant must contain all these parts. Some floating point numbers may have
certain parts missing. Some valid examples of floating point numbers are: 0.02, -0.23, 123.456,
+0.34 123, 0.9, -0.7, +0.8 etc.
✓ To make it a float type literal, you must specify it using Suffix F or f. Consider some valid
floating point literals given below. (Note that suffix L is for 1ong double.)
0.02F 0.34f 3.141592654L 0.002146 2.146E-3
✓ A floating point number may also be expressed in scientific notation. Therefore, the numbers
given below are valid floating point numbers:
0.5e2 14E-2 1.2e+3 2.1E-3 -5.6e-2

3. Character Constants
✓ A character constant consists of a single character enclosed in single quotes.
✓ For example, ‘a’ and ‘@’ are character constants.
✓ In computers, characters are stored using machines character set using ASCII codes. All escape
sequences mentioned in Table 4.1 are also character constants.

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4. String Constants
✓ A string constant is in double quotes.
✓ So “a” is not the same as ‘a’.
✓ The characters comprising the string constant are stored in successive memory locations.
✓ When a string constant is encountered in a C program, the compiler records the address of the
first character and appends a null character (‘\0’) to the string to mark the end of the string.
Thus, length of a string constant is equal to number of characters in the string plus 1 (for the
null character). Therefore, the length of string literal “hello” is 6.

4.12.2 Declaring Constants

✓ To declare a constant, precede the normal variable declaration with “const” keyword and
assign it a value. For example,
const float pi = 3.14;
The const keyword specifies that the value of pi cannot change.
✓ However, another way to designate a constant is to use the pre-processor command define.
Example: #define PI 3.14159
#define service_tax 0.12
In these examples, the value of pi will never change but service tax may change. Whenever the
value of the service tax is altered, it needs to be corrected only in the define statement.
Some rules that need to be applied to a #define statement which defines a constant:
Rule 1: Constant names are usually written in capital letters to visually distinguish them from
other variable names which are normally written in lower case characters.
Rule 2: No blank spaces are permitted between the # symbol and define keyword.
Rule 3: Blank space must be used between #define and constant name and between constant
name and constant value.
Rule 4: #define is a pre-processor compiler directive and not a statement. Therefore, it does not
end with a semi-colon.

4.13 Variable
✓ A variable is a name given to a memory location within the computer that can hold one
value at a time.
OR
A variable is a data item whose value changes during the execution of program.
✓ Every variable should be associated with type, size and value.
✓ Whenever a new value is placed into a variable, it replaces the previous value.

4.13.1 Rules for defining variables

Some rules have to be followed while forming variable names. They are as follows:
✓ Variables cannot include any special characters or punctuation marks (like #, s, ^, ?, ., etc.)
except the underscore ‘_’.
✓ There cannot be two successive underscores.
✓ Keywords cannot be used as variables.

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✓ The case of alphabetic characters that form the variable name is significant. For example,
‘FIRST’ is different from ‘first’ and ‘First’.
✓ Variables must begin with a letter or an underscore.
✓ Variables can be of any reasonable length. They should not contain more than 31 characters.
They can actually be longer than 31, but the compiler looks at only the first 31 characters of the
name.
Ex: Classify the following into valid and invalid variable names in C. If invalid give reasons:

Variable Valid/Invalid Reason

principle_amount Valid
A Valid
Sum1 Valid
for1 Valid
if Invalid It is a keyword
for Invalid It is a keyword
3_factorial Invalid Should not start with digit
Sum,1 Invalid Comma should not be there
sum-of-digits Invalid Minus sign should not be there
sum_of_digits Valid
sum of digits Invalid No spaces are allowed
$sum Invalid $ sign should not be there
sum= Invalid = sign should not be there
one+two Invalid + sign should not be there
sum! Invalid ! sign should not be there
int Invalid It is a keyword
$roll no Invalid $ sign should not be there
_name1 Valid
James bond Invalid No spaces are allowed

4.13.2 Types of Variables

C language supports two basic kinds of variables numeric and character.

1. Numeric Variables
✓ Numeric variables can be used to store either integer values or floating point values.
✓ While an integer value is a whole number without a fraction part or decimal point, a
floating point value can have a decimal point.
✓ Numeric variables may also be associated with modifiers, such as short, long, signed, and
unsigned. The difference between signed and unsigned numeric variables is that signed
variables can be either negative or positive but unsigned variables can only be positive.
✓ When we do not specify the signed/ unsigned modifier, C language automatically takes it as a
signed variable. To declare an unsigned variable, the unsigned modifier must be explicitly
added during the declaration of the variable.

2. Character Variables
✓ Character variables are just single characters enclosed within single quotes. These characters
could be any character from the ASCII character set-letters (‘a’, ‘A’), numerals ( ‘2’), or special
characters (‘&’).
✓ A number that is given in single quotes is not the same as a number without them. This is
because 2 is treated as an integer value, but ‘2’ is considered character not an integer.
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4.13.3 Declaring/Defining a Variable
✓ Each variable to be used in the program must be declared.
✓ ‘Declaration’ tells the computer which storage locations or variables to use in the program.
✓ It is a method of informing the compiler to reserve the memory space for the program
data based on the type of variables.
✓ To declare a variable, specify the data type of the variable followed by its name.
✓ The data type indicates the kind of values that the variable will store.
Syntax: datatype v ,v ,…….,v ;
1 2 n

Where, datatype: it can be int, float, char, double etc.

v1,v2,---,vn: is a list of variables, which are separated by commas.
Ex: int a,b,c;
float p,t,r,si;

4.13.4 Initializing the variables

✓ Initialization is the process of assigning values to the variables.
Syntax:
datatype var_name=data;

Where, datatype: is the type of the data to be stored in memory location. (int,float,char,double)
var_name: name of a variable
= is assignment operator
data: is the value to be stored in memory associated with variable var_name.
Ex: int a=10;

4.14 Input/Output statements in C

✓ A Stream is the source of data as well as the destination of data.
✓ Streams are associated with a physical device such as a monitor or a file stored on the
secondary memory.
✓ C uses two forms of streams:
• Text stream: In a text stream, sequence of characters is divided into lines, each line
being terminated with a new character(\n).
• Binary stream: A binary stream contains data values using their memory
representation.

Figure 4.7. Input and output streams in C

Formatting Input/Output
✓ C language supports two formatting functions printf and scanf.
✓ printf is used to convert data stored in the program into a text stream for output to the
monitor and scanf is used to convert the text stream coming from the keyboard to data
values and stores them in program variables.

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1. printf()
✓ The printf() function (stands for print formatting), is used to display information required by
the user and also prints the values of variables.
✓ For this, the printf() function takes data values, converts them to a text stream using
formatting specifications in the control string and passes the resulting text stream to
standard output.
✓ Each data value to be formatted in the text stream is described using a separate conversion
specification in the control string.
✓ The specification in the control string describes data value’s type, size, specific format.

Figure 4.8. printf() in C

The syntax of printf function:
printf(“control string”, variable list);
✓ The function accepts two parameters- control string & variable list.
✓ The control string may also contain the text to be printed like instructions to the user, captions,
identifiers or any other text to make the output readable.
✓ In some printf statements there may be only a text string that has to be displayed on the screen.
✓ The control characters can also be included in the printf statement like \n, \t, \a, etc.
✓ The prototype of control string:
%[flags][width[[.precision][length modifier] type specifier
✓ Each control string must begin with a % sign. The % sign specifies how the next variable in the
list of variables has to be printed.
✓ After % sign follows:

Flags
✓ Flag is an optional argument which specifies output justifications such as numerical sign,
trailing zeros or octal, decimal or hexadecimal prefixes.
Types of flags:
- : Left justify
+ : Display data with numeric sign
# : Provide additional specifier o,O,X,0,0x
0 : Left-padding with zeros

Width
✓ It is an optional argument which specifies minimum number of positions in the output.

Precision
✓ Precision is an optional argument which specifies the maximum number of characters to print.

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✓ Therefore, a conversion specification %7.3f means print a floating point value of maximum 7
digits where 3 digits are allotted for the digits after the decimal point.

Length modifiers
Table 4.2 Length modifiers for printf()

Type specifiers
✓ Type specifiers are used to define the type and interpretation of the value of the corresponding
argument.

Table 4.3 Type specifiers for printf()

Guidelines/Rules for printf()

✓ A printf() always contains a string or format string in quotation marks.
✓ The control string may or may not be followed by some variables or expressions whose value
we want printed.
✓ Each value to be printed needs a ‘conversion specification’ like %d to hold its place in the
control string.
✓ This conversion specification describes the exact way the value is to be printed.
✓ When printf() is executed each conversion specification is replaced by the value of the
corresponding expression, then print according to the rules in specification.
✓ The symbols \n or \t in control string tell the machine to skip to new line or tab. It affects the
appearance of the output but not displayed as part of it.
✓ A word or blank space or punctuation symbols within the control string will print exactly as it
appears.

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✓ If there are variables or expressions to be printed, commas are used to separate them from the
control string and each other, once comma is used as separator, it is not necessary to add blank
spaces (not allowed).

Ex: printf (“%d%d \n”,a,b);

and Both are same
printf (“%d%d \n”, a, b);

Control String or Newline character Variables to be printed

Format Specifiers

2. scanf()
✓ The scanf() function stands for scan formatting and is used to read formatted data from the
keyboard.
✓ The scanf() function takes a text stream from the keyboard, extracts and formats the data
from the stream according to a format control string and then stores the data in a
specified program variables.
✓ Syntax of the scanf() function:
scanf ( “control string”, arg1, arg2, arg3,….. argn);
✓ Control string specifies the type and format of the data that has to be obtained from the
keyboard and stored in the memory locations pointed by arg1, arg2, …, argn,i.e., arguments are
actually the variable addresses where each piece of data is to be stored.
✓ Prototype of the control string can be given as:
%[*][width][modifier] type
✓ Here the * is an optional argument which indicates that data should be read from the stream, but
ignored (not stored in memory location).

Width
✓ This is an optional argument that specifies the maximum number of characters to be read.
✓ Fewer characters are read if scanf() encounters a white space and will stop processing further.

Modifier
✓ It is an optional argument that can be h, l, or L for the data pointed by corresponding additional
arguments.
✓ Modifier h is used for short int or unsigned short int, l is used for long int, unsigned long int, or
double values. Finally, L is used for long double data values.

Type
✓ It specifies the type of data that has to be read.
✓ The type specifiers for scanf( ) function are same as that of printf ( ) function.
✓ The scanf function ignores any blank spaces, tabs and newlines entered by the user.
✓ The address of the variable is denoted by an ‘&’ sign followed by the name of the variable.

Rules to use a scanf function:

Rule 1: The scanf function works until:
o the maximum number of characters has been processed
o a white space character is encountered,
o or an error is detected.

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 Rule 2: Every variable that has to be processed must have a conversion specification associated
with it. Therefore, following scanf statement will generate an error as num3 has no conversion
specification associated with it.
scanf(“ %d %d”, &num1, &num2, &num3);

Rule 3: There must be a variable address for each conversion specification. Therefore following
scanf will generate an error as no variable address is given for the third conversion specification.
scanf(%d %d %d”, &num1, &num2);

Rule 4: An error will be generated if the format string is ended with the white space character.

Rule 5: The data entered by the user must match the character specified in the control string,
otherwise, an error will be generated and scanf will stop its processing.
For example, consider the following scanf of statement
scanf(“%d / %d”, &num1, &num2);
Here the slash in the constant string is neither a white space character nor a part of the
conversion specification, so the users must enter data of the form 21/46.

Rule 6: Input data values must be separated by spaces.

Rule 7: Any unread data value will be considered as a part of data input in the next call to the
scanf.

Rule 8: When the field width specifier is used, it should be large enough to contain the input data
size.

Examples of printf/scanf:
1. Code to input values in variables of different data types:
▪ int num;
scanf(“%d”,&num);

▪ float salary;
scanf(“%f”, &salary);

▪ char ch;
scanf(“%c”,&ch);

▪ char str[10];
scanf(“%s”, str);

2. Reading variables of different data types in one statement:

int num;
float fnum;
char ch;
char str[10];
scanf(“%d %f %c %s”, &num, &fnum, &ch, str);

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