1.

The History of C
1960 International Group
ALGOL
Martin Richards.
BPCL 1967
No types

B 1970 Ken Thompson

Traditional C 1972 Dennis Ritchie

Some Types
K & RC 1978 Kernighan and Ritchie

ANSI C 1989 ANSI Commitee

* The root of all modern Language is ALGOL

ANSI – American National Standards Institute

ISO - International standard Organisation
BCPL- Basic combined Programming Language
 2. 1st C Program
(hello.c)
/* my first program */

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
printf("Hello World\n");
return 0;
}

Programming In C 2
 3.1. Compilation in 3
Stages
Stage 1: Preprocessing
 Performed by a program called the preprocessor
 Modifies the source code (in RAM) according to
preprocessor directives (preprocessor commands)
embedded in the source code
 Strips comments and white space from the code
 The source code as stored on disk is not modified.

continued 3
Stage 2: Compilation
o Performed by a program called the
compiler
o Translates the preprocessor-modified
source code into object code (machine
code)
o Checks for syntax errors and warnings
o Saves the object code to a disk file, if
instructed to do so (we will not do this).
o If any compiler errors are received, no object
code file will be generated.
o An object code file will be generated if only
warnings, not errors, are received.
Programming In C
continued 4
Stage 3: Linking
o Combines the program object code with other
object code to produce the executable file.
o The other object code can come from the Run-
Time Library, other libraries, or object files
that you have created.
o Saves the executable code to a disk file with
name and extension .exe.
o If any linker errors are received, no executable
file will be generated.

Programming In C
continued 5
Program Development
Editor
Source File prgm.c

Preprocessor

Modified Source Code in RAM

Compiler
Program Object Code File prgm.obj
Other Object Code Files (if any)

Linker

Executable File prgm.exe

Programming In C 6
 Creating Programs

C libaray

Edit hello.c compile hello.obj Link hello.exe

Source File Object File

Executable
(High-Level (Machine
Languages) Languages)

edit hello.c Compile and link

Programming In C 7
 A Simple C Program
/* Filename: hello.c
greeting “Hello, World!”
*/
#include <stdio.h>
int main ( void )
{
printf ( “Hello, World!\n” ) ;
return 0 ;
}

Programming In C 8
 Program Comment
 A comment is descriptive text used to help a reader
of the program understand its content.
 All comments must begin with the characters /*
and end with the characters */
 These are called comment delimiters
 The program header comment always comes first.
 Look at the class web page for the required contents
of our header comment.

Programming In C 9
 Preprocessor Directives
 Lines that begin with a # in column 1 are called
preprocessor directives (commands).
 Example: the #include <stdio.h> directive
causes the preprocessor to include a copy of the
standard input/output header file stdio.h at this
point in the code.
 This header file was included because it contains
information about the printf ( ) function that is
used in this program.

Programming In C 10
 stdio.h
 When we write our programs, there are
libraries of functions to help us so that we
do not have to write the same code over
and over.
 Some of the functions are very complex
and long. Not having to write them
ourselves make it easier and faster to write
programs.
 Using the functions will also make it easier
to learn to program!

Programming In C 11
 int main ( void )
 Every program must have a function called
main. This is where program execution begins.
 main() is placed in the source code file as the
first function for readability.
 The reserved word “int” indicates that main()
returns an integer value.
 The parentheses following the reserved word
“main” indicate that it is a function.
 The reserved word “void” means nothing is
there.

Programming In C 12
 The Function Body
 A left brace (curly bracket) -- { --
begins the body of every function. A
corresponding right brace -- } -- ends
the function body.

 The style is to place these braces on

separate lines in column 1 and to
indent the entire function body 3 to 5
spaces.

Programming In C 13
printf (“Hello, World!\n”)
;
 This line is a C statement.
 It is a call to the function printf ( )
with a single argument
(parameter), namely the string
“Hello, World!\n”.
 Notice that this line ends with a
semicolon. All statements in C end
with a semicolon.

Programming In C 14
 return 0 ;
 Because function main() returns an integer value,
there must be a statement that indicates what this
value is.
 The statement
return 0 ;

indicates that main() returns a value of zero

to
the operating system.
 A value of 0 indicates that the program
successfully terminated execution.

Programming In C 15
 4. #include
#include <stdio.h>

 This header file contains declarations

and function ‘headers’, called function pr
ototypes.

 The angled brackets tell the compiler

that the file stdio.h is in the directory :
/usr/include

Programming In C 16
 stdio.h only contains function ‘headers’;
where is the actual code?

 At linking time, compiler automatically

includes certain standard libraries.

 Library files are stored in the directory:

/usr/lib

Programming In C 17
5. 2nd C program (add.c)
/* Addition program */
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int x, y, z;
printf("Enter first integer\n");
scanf("%d", &x);
printf("Enter second integer\n");
scanf("%d", &y);
z = x + y;
printf("Sum is %d\n", z);
return 0;
}

Programming In C 18
 Compile and Run

Enter first integer

2 /* I type this */
Enter second integer
3 /* Me again */
Sum is 5 /* Correct! */

Programming In C 19
6. Memory as Many Boxes

 Each box is labelled with an

identifier; it is the name of the box.
e.g. x, y, z

 The address of a box is & and its

name.
e.g. &x, &y, &z

Programming In C 20
 Boxes are typed (e.g. int, float, etc).
This specifies their size and shape

 Boxes contain values (e.g. 5, 3.4)

 C Programs Mess With Boxes

Programming In C 21
 7. 3rd C Program
(bigger.c)
/* Using the if statement, relational
operators and equality operators */
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
int a, b;

printf("Enter two integers, and I will

tell you the relationships they satisfy:");
scanf("%d%d", &a, &b);

Programming In C
continued 22
if(a == b)
printf("%d is equal to %d\n", a, b);

if(a != b)
printf("%d is not equal to %d\n", a, b);

if(a < b)
printf("%d is < than %d\n", a, b);

Programming In C
continued 23
 if(a > b)
printf("%d is > than %d\n", a, b);

if(a <= b)
printf("%d is <= to %d\n", a, b);

if(a >= b)
printf("%d is >= to %d\n", a, b);

return 0;
}

Programming In C 24
 Compile and Run
Enter two integers, and I will tell
you the relationships they satisfy:
3 7
3 is not equal to 7
3 is < than 7
3 is <= to 7

Programming In C 25
8. A C Program ‘Skeleton’
(skeleton.c)
/* Name, student no. (E-mail addr.)
Date
Description of Code (5-10 lines)
*/
#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
/* declare some variables */
/* do something */
return 0;
}

Programming In C 26
 C Reserved Words
 auto  float  sizeof
 break  for  static
 case  goto  struct
 char  if  switch
 const  int  typedef
 continue
 long  union
 default
 do
 register  unsigned
 double
 return  void
 else  short  volatile
 enum  signed  while
 extern

Programming In C 27
 C Data Types
 int standard integer (16 bits / 2 bytes)
 short short integer (8 bits / 1 byte) 1
 long long integer (32 bits / 4 bytes) 1
 unsigned unsigned integer
 char character (8 bits / 1 byte)
 float real number 1
 double double precision real 1

Note 1: platform dependent

Programming In C 28
 Set of values and operation defined on
them
 C supports several different types of data

Data Description Memory

Type allocated
int Integer quantity 2 bytes
char Single character 1 byte
float Floating point 4 bytes
numbers(decimal)
double Double precision 8 bytes
floating point numbers
* Allocated memory varies from one compiler to another compiler

Programming In C 29
 Tokens
 The smallest element in the C
language is the token.
 It may be a single character or a
sequence of characters to form a
single item.

Programming In C 30
 Tokens are:
 Tokens can be:
 Numeric constants
 Character constants

 String constants

 Keywords

 Names (identifiers)

 Punctuation

 Operators

Programming In C 31
 Numeric Constants
 Numeric constants are an
uninterrupted sequence of digits
(and may contain a period). They
never contain a comma.
 Examples:
 123
 98.6

 1000000

Programming In C 32
 Character Constants
 Singular!
 One character defined character set.
 Surrounded on the single quotation
mark.
 Examples:
 ‘A’
 ‘a’

 ‘$’

 ‘4’

Programming In C 33
 String Constants
 A sequence characters surrounded by double
quotation marks.
 Considered a single item.
 Examples:
 “UMBC”
 “I like ice cream.”

 “123”

 “CAR”

 “car”

Programming In C 34
 Keywords
 Sometimes called reserved words.
 Are defined as a part of the C
language.
 Can not be used for anything else!
 Examples:
 int
 while

 for

Programming In C 35
 Names
 Sometimes called identifiers.
 Can be of anything length, but on the first 31 are
significant (too long is as bad as too short).
 Are case sensitive:
 abc is different from ABC
 Must begin with a letter and the rest can be
letters, digits, and underscores.
 Must follow the standards for this course!

Programming In C 36
 Punctuation
 Semicolons, colons, commas,
apostrophes, quotation marks,
braces, brackets, and parentheses.
 ; : , ‘ “ [ ] { } ( )

Programming In C 37
 Naming variables
 When a variable is declared it is given a name
 Good programming practices
 Choose a name that reflects the role of the variable in a
program, e.g.
 Good: customer_name, ss_number;
 Bad : cn, ss;
 Don’t be afraid to have long names if it aids in readability
 Restrictions
 Name must begin with a letter; otherwise, can contain
digits or any other characters. C is CASE SENSITIVE! Use
31 or fewer characters to aid in portability

Programming In C 38
 Variable Declaration
 All variables must be declared in a C
program before the first executable
statement! Examples:
main(){
int a, b, c;
float d;
/* Do something here */
}
Programming In C 39
 C Variable Names
 Variable names in C may only consist of
letters, digits, and underscores and
may not begin with a digit
 Variable names in C are case sensitive
 ANSI standard requires only 31 or fewer
characters. Enhances portability to
follow this rule
 Should be very descriptive

Programming In C 40
 Variable assignment
 After variables are declared, they
must (should) be given values. This is
called assignment and it is done
with the ‘=‘ operator. Examples:
float a, b;
int c;
b = 2.12;
c = 200;

Programming In C 41
 char variable type
 Represents a single byte (8 bits) of storage
 Can be signed or unsigned
 Internally char is just a number
 Numerical value is associated with
character via a character set.
 ASCII character set used in ANSI C
 Question: what is the difference between:
 printf(“%c”, someChar);
 printf(“%d”, someChar);

Programming In C 42
 int variable type
 Represents a signed integer of typically
4 or 8 bytes (32 or 64 bits)
 Precise size is machine-dependent
 Question: What are the maximum and
minimum sizes of the following:
 32-bit unsigned int
 32-bit signed int
 64-bit signed/unsigned int

 What happens if these limits are

exceeded?
Programming In C 43
float and double variable
types
 Represent typically 32 and/or 64 bit
real numbers
 How these are represented internally
and their precise sizes depend on the
architecture. We won’t obsess over this
now.
 Question: How large can a 64-bit float
be?
 Question: How many digits of precision
does a 64-bit float have?
Programming In C 44
Additional variable types
 Note that other types can be
constructed using the modifiers:
 short, long, signed, unsigned
 The precise sizes of these types is
machine-specific
 We will not worry about them for the
time being
 To find out the meaning of short int, etc.
on a given system, use <limits.h>

Programming In C 45
 Declaring variables
 All variables must always be declared before the
first executable instruction in a C program
 Variable declarations are always:
 var_type var_name;
 int age;
 float annual_salary;
 double weight, height; /* multiple vars ok */
 In most cases, variables have no meaningful value
at this stage. Memory is set aside for them, but
they are not meaningful until assigned.

Programming In C 46
 Assigning values to
Variables
 Either when they are declared, or at any
subsequent time, variables are assigned values
using the “=“ operator.
 Examples
int age = 52; //joint declaration/assignment
double salary;
salary = 150000.23;
age = 53; //value may change at any time

Programming In C 47
 Variables in
Programming
 Represent storage units in a program
 Used to store/retrieve data over life of
program
 Type of variable determines what can be
placed in the storage unit
 Assignment – process of placing a particular
value in a variable
 Variables must be declared before they are
assigned
 The value of a variable can change; A
constant always has the same value
Programming In C 48
 Assignment, cont.
 Be careful to assign proper type – contract
between declaration and assignments
must be honored
 int x=2.13 /* what is the value of x? */
 double x = 3; /* is this ok? */
 char c = 300; /* 300 > 1 byte; what happens?
*/
 General advice
 Don’t obsess too much over this at beginning
 Keep it simple, stick to basic data types
 We will be more pedantic later in the course

Programming In C 49
 The printf Executable
Statement
 The only executable statements we’ve
seen to this point are
 Assignments
 The printf and scanf functions
 Assignment expressions with simple
operators (+, -)
 Very hard to write any program without
being able to print output. Must look at
printf in more detail to start writing
useful code.

Programming In C 50
 printf(), cont.
 Sends output to standard out, which for now we
can think of as the terminal screen.
 General form
printf(format descriptor, var1, var2, …);
 format descriptor is composed of
 Ordinary characters
 copied directly to output
 Conversion specification
 Causes conversion and printing of next argument to printf
 Each conversion specification begins with %

Programming In C 51
 Printf() examples
 Easiest to start with some examples
 printf(“%s\n”, “hello world”);
 Translated: “print hello world as a string followed by
a newline character”
 printf(“%d\t%d\n”, j, k);
 Translated: “print the value of the variable j as an
integer followed by a tab followed by the value of the
variable k as an integer followed by a new line.”
 printf(“%f : %f : %f\n”, x, y, z);
 English: “print the value of the floating point variable
x, followed by a space, then a colon, then a space,
etc.

Programming In C 52
 More on format
statements
 The format specifier in its simplest form is one
of:
 %s
 sequence of characters known as a String
 Not a fundamental datatype in C (really an array of char)
 %d
 Decimal integer (ie base ten)
 %f
 Floating point
 Note that there are many other options. These
are the most common, though, and are more
than enough to get started.

Programming In C 53
 Invisible characters
 Some special characters are not visible
directly in the output stream. These all
begin with an escape character (ie \);
 \n newline
 \t horizontal tab
 \a alert bell
 \v vertical tab
 See K&R p.38 for more details

Programming In C 54
 Arithmetic Operations
 Five simple binary arithmetic operators
1. + “plus”  c = a + b
2. - “minus”  c = a - b
3. * “times”  c = a * b
4. / “divided by” c = a/b
5. % “modulus” c = a % b
1. What are the values of c in each case
above if
 int a = 10, b = 2;
 float a = 10, b = 2;
 int a = 10; float b = 2; ??

Programming In C 55
 Relational Operators
 Four basic operators for comparison of values
in C. These are typically called relational
operators:
1. > “greater than”
2. < “less than”
3. >= “greater than or equal to”
4. <= “less than or equal to”
1. For the declaration
int a=1,b=2,c;
what is the value of the following expressions?
a > b; a<b; a>=b;a<=b

Programming In C 56
 Relational Operators,
cont.
 Typically used with conditional expressions, e.g.
 if (a < 1) then …
 However, also completely valid expressions which
evaluate to a result – either 1 (true) or 0 (false).
int c, a=2, b=1;
c = (a > b)
What is the value of c?
 Note: We’ll talk about order of precedence for
multipart expressions a little later. For now, we
force an order using parentheses.

Programming In C 57
 Equality Operators
 C distinguished between relational and
equality operators.
 This is mainly to clarify rules of order of
precedence.
 Two equality operators
1. == “is equal to”
2. != “is not equal to”
 These follow all of the same rules for
relational operators described on the
previous slide.
Programming In C 58
 Logical Operators
 Logical Operators are used to create
compound expressions
 There are two logical operators in C
1. || “logical or”
♦ A compound expression formed with || evaluates to 1
(true) if any one of its components is true
1. && “logical and”
♦ A compound expression formed with && evaluates to
true if all of its components are true

Programming In C
continued 59
 Logical operators, like relational
operators, are typically used in
conditional expressions
1. if ( (a == 1) && (b < 3) || (c == 1) ) etc.
 However, these can also be used in
regular expressions
int a = 1, b = 2, c = 3, d;
d = ( a > b ) || ( c == (b – 1) );
What is the value of d here?

Programming In C
continued 60
 Logical Operators
expression1 expression2 expression1 && expression2
0 0 0
0 nonzero 0
nonzero 0 0
nonzero nonzero 1
Fig. 4.13 Truth table for the && (logical AND) operator.

expression1 expression2 expression1 | | expression2

0 0 0
0 nonzero 1
nonzero 0 1
nonzero nonzero 1
Fig. 4.14 Truth table for the logical OR (||) operator.

expression ! expression
0 1
nonzero 0
Fig. 4.15 Truth table for operator ! (logical negation).

Programming In C
continued 61
 Logical Operators
Operators Associativity Type
++ -- + - ! ( type) right to left unary
* / % left to right multiplicative
+ - left to right additive
< <= > >= left to right relational
== != left to right equality
&& left to right logical AND
|| left to right logical OR
?: right to left conditional
= += -= *= /= %= right to left assignment
, left to right comma
Fig. 4.16 Operator precedence and associativity.

Programming In C 62
Bit wise logical operators
 & bit wise AND
| bit wise inclusive OR
^ bit wise exclusive OR
 << left shift
 >> right shift
~ one’s complement

Programming In C 63
 Confusing Equality (==)
and Assignment (=)
Operators
 Dangerous error
 Does not ordinarily cause syntax errors
 Any expression that produces a value can be
used in control structures
 Nonzero values are true, zero values are false

 Example using ==:

if ( payCode == 4 )

printf( "You get a bonus!\n" );

 Checks payCode, if it is 4 then a bonus is awarded

Programming In C
continued 64
 Example, replacing == with =:
if ( payCode = 4 )
printf( "You get a bonus!\n" );
 This sets payCode to 4
 4 is nonzero, so expression is true, and bonus
awarded no matter what the payCode was
 Logic error, not a syntax error

Programming In C
continued 65
 lvalues
 Expressions that can appear on the left side of an equation

 Their values can be changed, such as variable names

 x = 4;

 rvalues
 Expressions that can only appear on the right side of an
equation
 Constants, such as numbers

 Cannot write 4 = x;

 Must write x = 4;

 lvalues can be used as rvalues, but not vice versa

 y = x;

Programming In C 66
Structured-Programming
Summary
Selection

if statement if…else statement

(single selection) (double selection)
Seq uence T F T

switch statement
(multiple selection)
T
break

F
T
. break
.
. F
.
.
.

T break

Programming In C
continued 67
 Repetition

while statement do…while statement for statement

T
F T
T
F
F

Programming In C
continued 68
 Structured-Programming
Summary
 Structured programming
 Easier than unstructured programs to understand, test,
debug and, modify programs
 Rules for structured programming
 Rules developed by programming community

 Only single-entry/single-exit control structures are used

 Rules:

1. Begin with the “simplest flowchart”

2. Stacking rule: Any rectangle (action) can be replaced

by two rectangles (actions) in sequence
3. Nesting rule: Any rectangle (action) can be replaced
by any control structure (sequence, if, if…else, switch,
while, do…while or for)
4. Rules 2 and 3 can be applied in any order and
multiple times

Programming In C
continued 69
 Rule 2 - Any rectangle can be
Rule 1 - Begin with the
replaced by two rectangles in
simplest flowchart
sequence

Rule 2 Rule 2 Rule 2

.
.
.

Programming In C
continued 70
Rule 3 - Replace any rectangle with a control structure

Rule 3

Rule 3
Rule 3

Programming In C
continued 71
Stacke d b uilding b lo cks Nested build ing blocks

Overla pping b uilding blocks

(Illega l in structured pro gra ms)

Programming In C
continued 72
Figure 4.23 An unstructured flowchart.

Programming In C
continued 73
 All programs can be broken down into
3 controls
 Sequence – handled automatically by
compiler
 Selection – if, if…else or switch

 Repetition – while, do…while or for

 Can only be combined in two ways
 Nesting (rule 3)
 Stacking (rule 2)
 Any selection can be rewritten as an if
statement, and any repetition can be
rewritten as a while statement

Programming In C 74
 Reading keyboard input
 To be useful, program must be able to read
data from external source, e.g.
 User input from keyboard
 Database
 File
 Socket

 In next slide we cover the scanf library

function. It is like printf but reads user-
typed input rather than prints it.

Programming In C 75
 Scanf function
 In <stdio.f>, so no new #include(‘s)
 Basic syntax
 scanf( format-specifier, &var1, &var2, etc.);
 Format-specifier is identical to printf
 We do not need to understand everything here,
just enough to do some basic I/O
 Examples
 int a; scanf(“%d”,&a);
 double x; scanf(“%f”,&x);
 Blocks program until user enters input!

Programming In C 76
 Another technique for
passing data from the

keyboard
main() can also be written as
main(int argc, char *argv[])
 If main is written in this way, information can be
passed directly from the keyboard to the
program at the time of execution
 For example, we may run a program called a.out as:
PROMPT > a.out Andrew Siegel
 When a.out is run the two tokens Andrew and Siegel
are passed into the program and can be obtained by
querying argv and argc
 Note: this involves some concepts that go beyond
what we have learned so far. We will understand fully
later.

Programming In C
continued 77
 When this technique is used, each
token is stored as a separate
element in the array argv
 The first token passed to the
program is stored in argv[1], the
second token in argv[2], etc.
 argc stores the (integer) number of
tokens passed in
 A simple example will clarify this

Programming In C 78
 argc/argv example
 int main (int argc, char* argv[]){
printf(“%s %d %s \n”, “you entered”, argc, “arguments”);
printf(“%s: %s\n”, “the zeroth arg is the program name”,
argv[0]);
printf(“%s: %s\n”, “the first argument is”, argv[1]);
printf(“%s: %s\n”, “the second argument is, argv[2]);
}
> gcc argv_example.c –o argv_example
> argv_example hello world
you entered 3 arguments
the zeroth argument is the program name: argv_example
the first argument is hello
the second argument is world

Programming In C
continued 79
 Note that to do this completely generally we
would need to use a while or for loop
 We will study while loops shortly
 Also note that argv reads all arguments as
Strings (ie sequences of characters). So, we
cannot simply pass two number and add them,
for example. First, we would have to convert to
a numeric type.

Programming In C 80
 Converting String to
integer
 An important function when using
argv/argc is atoi.
 atoi converts a String argument to an
integer in the following way:
int input, output;
input = atoi(argv[1]);
output = input + 1;
printf("%d\n", output);
> a.out 333
334

Programming In C 81