Programming in C - Try It Out: An Example C Program

(Page 3 of 9 )

Run your editor and type in the following program exactly as it’s written. Be careful to input the
punctuation exactly as you see here. The brackets used on the fourth and last lines are braces—the
curly ones {}, not the square ones [] or the round ones ()—it really does matter. Also, make sure
you put the slashes the right way (/), as later you’ll be using the backslash (\) as well. Don’t forget
the semicolon (;).

/* Program 1.1 Your Very First C Program - Displaying Hello World */ #include
<stdio.h>

void main() {

printf("Hello world"); }

When you’ve entered the preceding source code, save the program as hello.c. You can use whatever
name you like instead of hello, but the extension must be .c. This extension name is the common
convention when you write C programs. The extension identifies the contents of the file as C source
code. Most compilers will expect the source file to have the extension .c, and if it doesn’t, the
compiler may refuse to process it.
Now you’re ready to compile your program. Exactly how you do this will depend upon which
compiler you’re using. If your C compiler allows you to work in an IDE, then you should easily be
able to find your way to a menu where you can select the Compile option. In UNIX, the command
you would use is cc.
Next, you’ll link all the pieces necessary to create an executable program. This will add in code from
the standard libraries that your program needs. Once again, the precise way to do this will depend
upon which compiler system you’re using. If you’re using UNIX, then append any modules that you
need to include at the end of your cc command. In an IDE, you’ll find the Link option on one of the
menus. Remember that many IDEs offer a Build option that will compile and link your program
automatically. If you aren’t working in an IDE, you should again consult your documentation to find
out what the command is to run the linker.
Finally, you can execute your program. Remember that you can do this in several ways. There is the
usual method of double-clicking the .exe file from Windows Explorer if you’re using Windows. You
could also run your program from the command line. To do so, just start a command-line session,
change the current directory to the one that contains the .exe file for your program, and then enter
the program name to run it. Within an IDE, you’ll probably also have the option of running your
program directly. Alternatively, there may be a Run menu that will compile, link, and execute the
program in one go.
NOTE If you’re working in an IDE, you may need to use the Window menu to change to an Output
window, where you can see the results of your program execution.
If everything worked without producing any error messages, you’ve done it! This is your first
program, and you should see the following message on the screen:
Hello world
Editing Your First Program
You could try altering the same program to display something else on the screen. For example, you
might want to try editing the program to read like this:

/* Program 1.2 Your Second C Program */

#include <stdio.h>

void main() {

printf("If at first you don\'t succeed, try, try, try again!");

 }

The \' sequence in the middle of the text to be displayed is called an escape sequence. Here it’s a
special way of including a single quote in the text. Because single quotes are used to indicate where
a character constant begins and ends, you need a special way to indicate when you mean a single
quote and not the start of a character constant. You’ll learn more about escapes sequences very
soon. You can try recompiling the program, relinking it, and running it again once you’ve altered the
source. With a following wind, and a bit of luck, you’ve now edited your first program. You’ve
written a program using the editor, edited it, and then compiled, linked, and executed it.

#include <stdio.h>
#define MAXROW 100
#define MAXCOL 100

float max( int len, float *p ) {

// OR: float max( int len, float p[] )

float res;
int i;

printf("\nIn function max :");

printf("\nRow’s beginning address
in memory : %ld", p);
res = p[0];
for( i=1; i<len; i++ )
if( p[i] > res )
res = p[i];
return res;
}

float sumEl(int nrRow,int nrCol,

int maxCol,float *mat) {

int i, j;
float sum;

printf("\nIn function sumEl:");

printf("\nMatrix’s beginning address
in memory: %ld", mat);
printf("\nBegin. of 2nd row’s addr.
in mem.: %ld", &mat[maxCol]);
printf("\nBegin. of 3rd row’s addr.
in mem.: %ld", &mat[2* maxCol]);

sum = 0.0;
for( i=0; i<nrRow; i++ )
for( j=0; j<nrCol; j++ )
sum += mat[i*maxCol + j];
// or: sum += *(mat + i*maxCol + j)

return sum;
}

int main(void) {

int row, col, i, j;

float add, maxRow, mat[MAXROW][MAXCOL];

printf("\nInput nr. of rows and columns:");

scanf("%d %d", &row, &col );

printf("\nIn function main");

printf("\nMatrix’s beginning address
in memory: %ld", mat);
printf("\nBegin. of 2nd row’s
addr.: %ld\n\n", &mat[1][0]);
printf("\nBegin. of 3rd row’s
addr.: %ld\n\n", &mat[2][0]);
for( i=0; i<row; i++ )
for( j=0; j<col; j++ ) {
printf("Input element[%d,%d]:",i,j);
scanf("%f", &mat[i][j] );
}

//calculates elements sum in matrix

add=sumEl(row,col,MAXCOL,(float *) mat);
printf("\n\nSum of matrix
elements is %f", add );
 //prints maximal value of every mat. row

for(i=0;i<row;i++) {
maxRow = max(col, &mat[i][0]);
// or: max(col, mat+i*MAXCOL)
printf("\nBiggest element in
row %d is %f\n",i,maxRow);
}
}

Example of program’s execution:

Input nr. of rows and columns: 3 2

In function main :
Matrix’s beginning address in memory : 1205032
Begin. of 2nd row’s addr. : 1205432
Begin. of 3rd row’s addr. : 1205832

3rd:

1205432 = 125032 + 1 * MAXCOL * sizeof(float)

= 125032 + 400;
1205832 = 125032 + 2 * MAXCOL * sizeof(float)
= 125032 + 800;

Input element [0,0]: 2

Input element [0,1]: 3
Input element [1,0]: 4
Input element [1,1]: 3
Input element [2,0]: 1
Input element [2,1]: 5

In function sumEl:
Matrix’s beginning address in memory: 1205032
Begin. of 2nd row’s addr. in mem.: 1205432
Begin. of 3rd row’s addr. in mem.: 1205832
Sum of matrix elements is 18.000000
In function max:
Row’s beginning address in memory: 1205032
Biggest element in row 0 is 3.000000

In function max:
Row’s beginning address in memory: 1205432
Biggest element in row 1 is 4.000000

In function max:
Row’s beginning address in memory: 1205832
Biggest element in row 2 is 5.000000

Example:

Write your own C function which returns flow of matrix row’s maximal values.

void maxFlow(float *mat,int nrRow,int nrCol,

int maxCol,float *flow) {

//OR: void maxFlow(float mat[], int nrRow,

int nrCol,int maxCol,float flow[])

int i, j;
for (i = 0; i < nrRow; i++) {
flow[i] = mat[i * maxCol];
for(j = 1; j < nrCol; j++)
if (mat[i*maxCol+j] > flow[i])
flow[i]=mat[i*maxCol+j];
}
}

Learn C Programming, A short C Tutorial

So you want to be a hero.... I mean programmer, well by reading this tutorial maybe we'll
be able to help you accomplish your goal. First a little about C and its derivative C++. It
is considered to be the most commonly used programming language. If you want a job in
programmming, you will need to know this language. But what makes C the language
that everyone wants to use. Well, its been around for quite some time. The original C
since the 70s, and C++ since the early 80s, which is like eons in computer time. C is the
most versatile high level language. C permits just about anything, allowing programmers
to write straight to the metal. Its code runs very fast. Note that this tutorial will not cover
C++ (C with classes).
Table of Contents:

• Your First Program

• Data Types and Printf
• Loops and Conditions
• Pointers and Arrays
• Functions
• Other Resources

This tutorial is meant to be a brief introduction to C, it is by no means exhaustive. If you

need more information try looking at our Other Resources. Learning a programming
language is a lot like learning a language that people speak like German or French. The
best way to learn a 'human' language is to start speaking, listening, and repeating, and
then leaving the grammar for later. The same can be applied to C, you need to start
writing programs as quickly as possible. So, this tutorial will provided a lot of well
commented sample programs that you can run and tinker with.

1. Your First Program

If you've ever read another tutorial or a book on a programming language, then you've
probably seen a program like this before. The hello world program. It is a perfect starting
place for our tutorial. So, type the following program into your favorite editor. If you are
using Windows then try notepad or DOS Edit, if using a *Nix variant use VI or emacs.
Without further adew here is the program :
/* hello world program */
#include "stdio.h"

void main()
{
printf("\nHello World\n"); // print to screen
}

Save this code into a file, and call the file hello.c, then compile it by typing at a command
prompt:
gcc hello.c

If you are using *Nix you should have an a.out file now, but if you are using Windows
you might be wondering what is gcc, and where do I type the above line into. On
Windows getting up and started with C is little bit more difficult than with a *Nix variant.
You can get a variation of gcc to output Windows code called DJGPP at
www.delorie.com/djgpp/ Setting up the compiler is probably the hardest part to getting
started programming, and unfortunately this site doesn't cover setting up DJGPP. Another
compiler option is to get Microsoft Visual C++, an excellent editor, with lots of nice
features. The draw back is that the standard edition costs around $100. But if you can
afford a copy, get it. If you have Visual C++ and it is already installed then load it, click
File, then New, then select Win32 Console application from the project list. Type in a
project name, and then press ok. Next it will ask you what it should automatically create.
Select the hello world application, and then you should get a program very similar to the
one above. F7 compiles, and Ctrl-F5 will run it. From now on the tutorial will refer to the
*Nix method and output files. If you compiled the program in Windows instead of *Nix
you would have a hello.exe instead of a a.out

• Note:If you are coming from the gameboy advance tutorial, please note you will
need a separate compiler for this tutorial. The reason is the gcc with the devkit
advance is for the gameboy, so the code it generates will not run on a PC, also
becuase the gameboy has no standard font built in, you will not be able to see the
output of the printf statement, basically the above program will do nothing.

This creates an executable file a.out, which is then executed simply by

typing its name. The result is that the characters Hello World are
printed out, preceded by an empty line.
A C Program contains functions and variables. The functions specify
the tasks to be performed by the program. The above program has one
function called main. This function tells your program where to start
running. main functions are normally kept short and calls different
functions to perform the necessary sub-tasks. All C codes must have a
main function.
Also notice that C is case-sensitive. The commands have to be
written like they are above. C also denotes the end of statement with a
semi-colon like Java & Pascal. Brackets signify either to "{" begin a
group of statements, or "}" end a group of statements. The // or /*
comment */ designates a comment. Anything after two slashes the
compiler ignores. The last part of the program you should notice is the
#include. This simply includes a group of functions from the filename
specified between then less than and greater than signs (<...>). The
file above stdio.h contains a list of standard functions for C to use, the
function the our above program uses is printf. Printf takes a string of
characters between quotation marks, and outputs them to the screen.
Now that you understand the hello world program it's time to learn
more about data types, and the printf statement.

2. Data Types and Printf

Here is our next program to discuss. It declares several variables, performs some
computations, and then outputs the results of those computations to the screen.
#include <stdio.h>
 void main()
{
int numcandy; // declare a number variable
double cost; // declare a variable that can store decimals

printf("How many lollipops do you want: ");

scanf("%d", &numcandy); // get input from user
cost = 0.55 * numcandy; // do some math
printf("\nPlease pay %f to the cashier!\n", cost);
}

This program when run, well prompt the user for how many lollipops
they would like. After they enter a number and press enter, it will print
out how much it will cost them to buy that many lollipops assuming
lollipops cost 55 cents each.
The main, {} brackets, comments, and include should be familiar. The
new part of this program is the scanf, variables, and the use of printf to
print out numbers. of this program that we haven't seen before.
First lets talk about the variables. This program has two variables
numcandy, and cost. These are the names of the variables. Before a
variable can be used it must be declared. Declaring a variable in C is
easy, you simply tell the compiler the type, and the name you want the
variable to have. So in the above example. The line int numcandy;
tells the compiler you want a variable of type integer with the name
numcandy. Then you can simply use numcandy through out your
program to store int's (integers). Integers are non decimal numbers like
-13, 0, 10, 5, etc. The other variable in the above program is a double
which is used for storing numbers with decimals.
Next the scanf, and printf statements. After running the program you
will notice that the scanf function simply gets a value from the user. It
waits for the user to enter a number, and then press enter. It puts this
value into our variable numcandy. Next notice some special character
sequences contained in both the scanf and printf. First the printf has
the sequence "\n". This sequence simply means move to the next line.
Next we have the %f and %d. These tell printf and scanf what type of
variables to expect. %f corresponds to double, and %d is for int. So if
you changed the above programs printf line to ...pay $%d to... then
you would get wierd output since printf would try to print cost as an
integer, which doesn't make sense, because cost is a double. You need
to make sure the "%" go with the right types.
Variable names are arbitrary (with some compiler-defined maximum
length, typically 32 characters). C uses the following standard variable
types:
int -> integer variable
short -> short integer
long -> long integer
float -> single precision real (floating point) variable
double -> double precision real (floating point) variable
 char -> character variable (single byte)

The printf function can be instructed to print integers, floats and strings
properly. The general syntax is
printf( "format", variables );

where "format" specifies the converstion specification and variables is a list of quantities
to print. Some useful formats are
%.nd integer (optional n = number of columns; if 0, pad with zeroes)
%m.nf float or double (optional m = number of columns,
n = number of decimal places)
%ns string (optional n = number of columns)
%c character
\n \t to introduce new line or tab

So using this new knowledge, you could change the above program where it prints the
cost to ...pay $.2f to... which would print the number, and then only two decimal places
of the double. Look back up at the program one more time at the line cost = 0.55 *
numcandy;. This is the math of the program. This line is fairly self explanatory. It takes
the value which is stored in numcandy multiplies it with 0.55 and puts the resulting value
into cost. Here are a list of the standard math operators you can use in your programs:
+ add
- subtract
* multiply
/ divide
= equals (assignment operator)

Now that we've covered printf and the basic data types, we can move onto program
control meaning loops and conditions.

3. Loops and Conditions

Real programs are than just getting input, performing some math, and then printing out
the results. The next obvoius step would be to add some sort of control. Like for the
above example program if they put in that they wanted to buy more than 1000 lollipops.
We could print out, that the store doesn't have that many. This section will describe the
basic loop and condition statements available in C, and then will end with a short
example program putting a few to use.
First Conditional statements. C has three types of conditional
statements if, else, and switch.
Here is the syntax for if and else:
if (condition_1)
{
...block of statements executed if condition_1 is true
...statements are either more ifs and conditions or normal
normal lines of code that end with semi-colons
}
else if (condition_2)
{
...statements executed if condition_2 is true and condition_1 was
false
 }
else
{
...statements executed otherwise meaning 1 and 2 were false
}

and any variant that derives from the above. Either by omitting branches or by including
nested conditionals. Meaning having an if inside of another if. Now that we can make an
if we need to make the condition that goes inside of the parenthesis of the if. Conditions
are logical operators involving the comparison of quantities (of the same c type). Here are
a list of the basic conditional operators.
< smaller than
<= smaller than or equal to
== equal to
!= not equal to
>= greater than or equal to
> greater than

and the boolean operators

&& and
|| or
! not

Now that you know the operators here are some sample conditions. For instance using the
above example.
if (numcandy > 1000)
{
printf("The store does not have that much candy in stock!");
}
else
.... print out the cost .....

The boolean operators are for combining more than one condition into a single if
statement. So for instance
if (money>500 && cost<10) ...

This condition would only be true if both money was greater than 500, and cost less than
10. If you replace the && with || then the condition would be true if either money is
bigger than 500 OR cost less than 10. I think you get the picture. Another couple things
to notice about conditional statements in C is that the equality operator is == (two equals)
and not = one equals sign. The single equals sign as we learned in lesson two is the
assignment operator. You use it to assign values to variables so when you want to test if a
variable is equal to something use two equals signs == and not one. Remember THIS! It
is very important.
Next with C conditional statements you can also omit (leave out) the
operator. if you had a conditional statement:
if (numcandy) {...}

This would evaluate to true and the statements inside the {} brackets would be executed,
if numcandy was not equal to zero. Understand? If you have no operators inside the
parenthesis then C will simply check to see if the value is anything but zero.
Another conditional use is in the switch construct:
 switch (variable)
{
case const_1:
{
...block of statements...
break;
}
case const_2:
{
...block of statements...
break;
}
default:
{
...block of statements..
}
}

The appropriate block of statements is executed according to the value of the expression,
compared with the constant expressions in the case statement. The break statements
insure that the statements in the cases following the chosen one will not be executed. If
you would want to execute these statements, then you would leave out the break
statements. This construct is particularly useful in handling input variables.
Here is an example, if you had a integer variable called race position.
switch (race_position) {
case 1:
{
printf("First place, you get gold!\n");
break;
}
case 2:
{
printf("Second place, you get silver!\n");
break;
}
case 3:
{
printf("Third place, you get bronze!\n");
break;
}
default: // all other numbers (anything but 1,2,3)
{
printf("You dont get anything, you lose!\n");
break;
}
} // end switch

You could have easily done this same thing with three if's and and else. But we wanted to
demonstrate the switch. As an excersize rewrite the above code segment to use if's instead
of the switch.
That's it for conditional statements, now we come to the next part of
lesson three loops. C provides two basic types of loops a while and a
for loop. While and for loops continue to repeat basically until certain
conditions are met. Here is the syntax for while and for loops:
 while (condition)
{
...block of statements to execute...
}

and the for loop:

for (expression_1; expression_2; expression_3)
{
...block of statements to execute...
}

The while loop continues to loop until the condition becomes false. The condition is
tested upon entering the loop. Any logical construction (see below for a list) can be used
in this context.
The for loop is a special case, and is equivalent to the following while
loop:
expression_1;

while (expression_2)
{
...block of statements...

expression_3;
}

For instance, the following structure is often encountered:

i = initial_i;

while (i <= i_max)

{
...block of statements...

i = i + i_increment;
}

This structure may be rewritten in the easier syntax of the for loop as:
for (i = initial_i; i <= i_max; i = i + i_increment)
{
...block of statements...
}

Infinite loops are possible (e.g. for(;;)), but not too good for your computer budget! C
permits you to write an infinite loop, and provides the break statement to ``breakout'' of
the loop. For example, consider the following (admittedly not-so-clean) re-write of the
previous loop:
angle_degree = 0;

for ( ; ; )
{
...block of statements...

angle_degree = angle_degree + 10;

if (angle_degree == 360) break;
}
The conditional if simply asks whether angle_degree is equal to 360 or not; if yes, the
loop is stopped. Finally, to wrap up lesson three we will introduce #define's and then give
the sample program. You can define constants of any type by using the #define compiler
directive. Its syntax is simple--for instance
#define ANGLE_MIN 0
#define ANGLE_MAX 360

would define ANGLE_MIN and ANGLE_MAX to the values 0 and 360, respectively. C
distinguishes between lowercase and uppercase letters in variable names. It is customary
to use only capital letters in defining global constants. Then inside your program you
could insert ANGLE_MAX anytime you wanted to use the number 360.
Now here is the sample program. You should be able to understand all
the code there in. Basically there is a #define for a number of
lollipopps, and you sell lollipopps until you run it, but there is also a
limit too how many you can get at one time. Then after all are sold, the
amount of money for all purchases is printed out.
#include <stdio.h>

#define START_NUMBERLOLLIPOPS 100

#define MAX_AT_ONCE 30

void main()
{
int numcandy;
double cost;
int numberlollipopps;
double totalcost;

numberlollipopps = START_NUMBERLOLLIPOPS; // set start value to

our constant
totalcost = 0;

while (numberlollipopps > 0)

{

printf("(%d left) How many lollipops do you want (-1

quits): ", numberlollipopps);
scanf("%d", &numcandy);
if (numcandy == -1) // since this if has only one
statement brackets are not needed
break; // exit out of the while loop
else if (numcandy > MAX_AT_ONCE || numcandy <= 0 ||
numcandy > numberlollipopps)
{
printf("You cannot have that many, enter another
number\n");
}
else
{
cost = 0.55 * numcandy;
printf("\nPlease pay $%.2f to the cashier!\n",
cost);
totalcost = totalcost + cost;
numberlollipopps = numberlollipopps - numcandy;
}
 }
printf("All the lollipopps have been sold for : $%.2f\n",
totalcost);
}

4. Pointers and Arrays

The C language takes a lot of flack for its ability to peek and poke directly into memory.
This gives great flexibility and power to the language, but it also makes it one of the great
hurdles that the beginner must have in using the language. Arrays are very interesting
since they can be accessed through pointers or array syntax, that is why they are grouped
into the same lesson. With that said, let's get started.
All variables obviously have to be stored into memory, but where are
they stored? Imagine memory as this big long street with houses on it.
Each variable is a house on a street. Each house can hold a number of
people (value of variable). But how do you find out how many people
(what value is stored) are in a particular house. You have to have some
kind of address. Then with the address, you can go to the house and
then ask it: How many are there? Then you can get the value of a
variable. This is the basic concept behind pointers. This should seem
very logical, if not please reread this paragraph tell makes sense.
Let us use this new knowledge to examine a couple of statements.
int var_x;
int* ptrX;
var_x = 6;
ptrX = &var_x;
*ptrX = 12;
printf("value of x : %d", var_x);

The first line causes the compiler to reserve a space in memory for a integer. The second
line tells the compiler to reserve space to store a pointer. As you can notice the way you
declare a pointer is simply to add a "*" asterick to the end of the datatype. A pointer is a
storage location for an address. The third line should remind you of the scanf statements.
The address "&" operator tells C to goto the place it stored var_x, and then give the
address of the storage location to ptrX.
The fourth line is a bit more complex. An asterick * in front of a
variable tells C to dereference the pointer, and go to memory. Then
you can make assignments to variable stored at that location. Since
ptrX points to var_x, line 4 is equivalent to this command: var_x = 12;
Pretty cool, eh? You can reference a variable and access its data
through a pointer. Windows and all sorts of programs do this all the
time. They hand pointers of data to each other, and allow other
applications to access the memory they have.
Now you may be wondering, why are pointers so comlpex, or I've heard
the using pointers can cause problems. It can, and for those who aren't
careful misuse of pointer can do a lot of damage. Suppose that we
forget to type in line 3 ptrX = &var_x; when we entered the program.
What would happen if we executed it, who knows? Without this line
ptrX is never assigned an address. Basically it points to some random
data anywhere in memory. If you executed line 4 without line 3. You
could get very wierd results. Since ptrX hasn't been pointed to our
var_x, maybe its points to system memory, and then you assign a
value someplace you shouldn't and your computer crashes. This may
not always happen, but it is certainly a possibility, so be very careful
when using pointers. Make sure they are assigned to something before
you use them.
With that basic understanding of pointers, it is time to move to arrays.
The most obvious use of arrays would be an array of characters also
commonly knows as a string. The following program will make a string,
access some data in it, print it out. Access it again using pointers, and
then print the string out. It should print out "Hi!" and "012345678" on
different lines. The explanation of the code and arrays will follow
#include <stdio.h>
#define STR_LENGTH 10

void main()
{
char Str[STR_LENGTH];
char* pStr;
int i;
Str[0] = 'H';
Str[1] = 'i';
Str[2] = '!';
Str[3] = '\0'; // special end string character
printf("The string in Str is : %s\n", Str);
pStr = &Str[0];
for (i = 0; i < STR_LENGTH; i++)
{
*pStr = '0'+i;
pStr++;
}
Str[STR_LENGTH-1] = '\0';
printf("The string in Str is : %s\n", Str);
}

First off, let's talk about the array notation to declare an array in C, you use [] square
braces. The line of the program char Str[STR_LENGTH]; declares an array of ten
characters. Basically this is just ten individual chars which are all put together in memory
into the same place. An apartment complex in memory to use our pointer metaphor. They
can all be access through our variable name Str along with a [n] where n is the element
number (apartment number at same address). Also notice that when C declares an array
of ten. The elements you can access are numbered 0 to 9. Accessing the first apartment
corresponds to accessing the zeroeth element in C. Arrays are always like this, so learn to
deal with it. Always count from 0 to size of array - 1.
Next notice that we put the letters "Hi!" into the array, but then we put
in a '\0' You are probably wondering what this is. If you recall in lesson
two on printf, there are special charcter sequences that do special
things like "\n" stands for new line. Well time to learn a new one. "\0"
stands for end string. All character strings need to end with this special
character '\0'. If they do not, and then someone calls printf on the
string. Then printf would start at the memory location of your string,
and continue printing tell it encounters '\0' So you will end up with a
bunch of garbage at the end of your string. So make sure to terminate
your strings properly.
The next part of the code to discuss is our pointer access to the string.
Just like we learned, I declared a character pointer with an asterick and
gave it the name pStr. I then pointed pStr to the starting address of
our character string using the line pStr = &Str[0];. Now pStr points to
the start of our char array Str. Then I used a for loop, and started at 0,
went through 10 elements of the array (STR_LENGTH) and assigned the
corresponding value of i. The line pStr++; may seem a bit confusing. C
has a bunch of short cuts to manipulate variables the ++ just means
add one to the variable (in this case it moves the pointer to the next
element in the array). The ++ syntax here is equivalent to pStr = pStr
+ 1;. After manipulating the string, I terminated it with '\0' and printed
it out. That about does it for pointers and arrays, here are a few quick
notes. You should note that you will see other shortcuts in C like --
(subtracts one) or +=3; (adds three). I won't bother covering them,
since you should be able to figure them out just by looking at them.
Another note is that you can make arrays of any of C's types, I just
used char arrays since they seem to be the most common. Here is a
sample line to make an array of five integers: int arrayofint[5];.

5. Functions

This part should be quite simple compared to the last part. Functions are easy to use; they
allow complicated programs to be parcelled up into small blocks, each of which is easier
to write, read, and maintain. We have already encountered the function main and made
use of printf from the standard library. Now let's look at writing and using our own
functions.

Calling a Function

The call to a function in C simply entails referencing its name with the appropriate
arguments. The C compiler checks for compatibility between the arguments in the calling
sequence and the definition of the function. When someone writes a function for someone
to use that funciton will often be contained in a different C source file. Sometimes,
however we may not have access to all the source code for all the functions. This is the
case for most standard library functions like printf. However, we still know how to use
printf, and the arguments it requires because those arguments are listed in the header file
called stdio.h, which we have been including in our programs.
Library functions are generally not available to us in source form.
Argument type checking is accomplished through the use of header
files (like stdio.h) which contain all the necessary information. The most
commonly used header files are
<stdio.h> ->
defining I/O routines
<string.h> ->
defining string manipulation routines
<math.h> ->
defining mathematical routines
<stdlib.h> ->
defining number conversion, storage allocation
and similar tasks
<stdarg.h> -> defining libraries to handle routines with variable
numbers of arguments
<time.h> -> defining time-manipulation routines

To find out more about there header files and the functions they contain you can either by
a book about C or visit our Other Resources. In addtion to those header files, we can of
course make our own functions and header files. A function has the following layout:
return-type function-name ( argument-list-if-necessary )
{
...local-declarations...

...statements...

return return-value;
}

If return-type is omitted, C defaults to int. The return-value must be of the declared type.
A function may simply perform a task without returning any value, in
which case it has the following layout:
void function-name ( argument-list-if-necessary )
{
...local-declarations...

...statements...
}

Arguments are always passed by value in C function calls. This means that local ``copies''
of the values of the arguments are passed to the routines. Any change made to the
arguments internally in the function are made only to the local copies of the arguments.
In order to change (or define) an argument in the argument list, this argument must be
passed as an address, thereby forcing C to change the ``real'' argument in the calling
routine.
As an example, consider exchanging two numbers between variables.
First let's illustrate what happen if the variables are passed by value:
#include <stdio.h>

void exchange(int a, int b);

void main()
{ /* WRONG CODE */
int a, b;

a = 5;
b = 7;
printf("From main: a = %d, b = %d\n", a, b);
 exchange(a, b);
printf("Back in main: ");
printf("a = %d, b = %d\n", a, b);
}

void exchange(int a, int b)

{
int temp;

temp = a;
a = b;
b = temp;
printf(" From function exchange: ");
printf("a = %d, b = %d\n", a, b);
}

Run this code and observe that a and b are NOT exchanged! Only the copies of the
arguments are exchanged. The RIGHT way to do this is of course to use pointers. Also
note that in the above code how the function exchange was prototyped. It was declared
with a semicolon, and ZERO statements before the main function. This is called forward
declaration. This allows the C Compiler to compile main, without not yet knowing the
code for exchange. All it needs to know is what exchange arguments look like. This way
we can put the exchange function after our main function. We could have easily put
exchange before main and gotten rid of the declaration. The next code segment will fix
exchange to use pointers, and move exchange above main to eliminate the need for the
forward declaration.
#include <stdio.h>

void exchange ( int *a, int *b )

{
int temp;

temp = *a;
*a = *b;
*b = temp;
printf(" From function exchange: ");
printf("a = %d, b = %d\n", *a, *b);
}

void main()
{ /* RIGHT CODE */
int a, b;

a = 5;
b = 7;
printf("From main: a = %d, b = %d\n", a, b);

exchange(&a, &b);
printf("Back in main: ");
printf("a = %d, b = %d\n", a, b);
}

The rule of thumb here is that

 • You use regular variables if the function does not change the values of those
arguments
• You MUST use pointers if the function changes the values of those arguments

Lastly, I noticed that none of the examples with functions have returned values. So this
quick example will illustrate returning values with functions. Functions may not seem
that useful yet, but as your program grows you will no longer want to have all your code
in main. So you will want to split it up into functions. Below we have a function that adds
the two arguments it receives and returns their value. Not to complex, but does its job
well. Take a look:
#include <stdio.h>

int addints(int a, int b)

{
return a+b;
}

void main()
{
int a;
int b;
int sum;
a = 6;
b = 7;
sum = addints(a, b);
printf("The sum of a and b is : %d\n", sum);
}

6. Other Resources

That concludes our tutorial on C, you should have a fairly good handle on all the basics
of the C langauge now. There are still quite a few things that such a short tutorial could
not cover like structs, file I/O, typedefs, c standard library functions, and more. But we
have gathered a few links to some further resources here. Where you can learn more
about. We also have two books listed that come highly recommended. Good luck with
you adventures as a hero.... I mean programmer. If you have any comments or questions
feel free to contact us.

• CProgramming.Com this is the resource for C programmers. It is the source for

tons of information. It has good tutorials, which are easy to understand and
message boards so you can get help for any problems you may encounter. This is
the place for C!
• DJGPP Want a great *free* C++ compiler this is it. Easy to setup, and with
Allegro you'll be making games in no time!
• DEV C++ another free compiler for C/C++
• Dr. Dobb's Journal software tools for the professional programmer. We used to
link to the Programmer's Vault, but as this has been integrated into Dr. Dobb's we
will link there instead.
 • C Tutorial at Drexel.edu - contains a little bit more information about file i/o and
command line arguments. Parts of the above tutorial were based on this one here.
• BOOK : C Programming Language (2nd Edition) by Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis
M. Ritchie. This is slightly more complex than a tutorial or a book to learn C. It is
more of a reference. But is was written by the guys who invented C, so what can I
say. It is the definite source for accurate information on the C language.
• BOOK : C For Dummies®, Volume One & Two Bundle by Dan Gookin. This is
an excellent book to start learning C from. It's simple, and takes you step by step
through the world of making programs, and becoming a programmer.

."using ? command."
#include <iostream.h>
#include <conio.h>
int main(){
clrscr();
float a,b,c,d;
cin >>a>>b>>c>>d;
a=(a>c+d)?(a*c) : (b*d);
cout <<"a="<<a;
getch();
return 0;
}
[/indent]
[indent]
2."using of while loop command."
#include <iostream.h>
#include <conio.h>
int main(){
clrscr();
float a,b,c,d;
cin >>a>>b>>c>>d;
a=(a>c+d)?(a*c) : (b*d);
cout <<"a="<<a;
getch();
return 0;
}
[/indent]
[indent]
3."using of for loop"
#include <iostream.h>
#include <conio.h>
int main(){
clrscr();
float a,b,c,d;
cin >>a>>b>>c>>d;
a=(a>c+d)?(a*c) : (b*d);
cout <<"a="<<a;
getch();
return 0;
}
[/indent]
[indent]
4."conwerting a secund to hour and minute and secund."
#include <iostream.h>
#include <conio.h>
int main(){
clrscr();
float a,b,c,d;
cin >>a>>b>>c>>d;
a=(a>c+d)?(a*c) : (b*d);
cout <<"a="<<a;
getch();
return 0;
}
[/indent]
[indent]
5."calculate numbers of a data"
#include <iostream.h>
#include <conio.h>
int main(){
clrscr();
int a,b,c=0;
cout <<"enter number:";
cin >>a;
while(a>0){
b=a%10;
c+=b;
a/=10;
}
cout <<"result="<<c;
getch();
return 0;
}
[/indent]
[indent]
6."simple working with numbers"
#include <iostream.h>
#include <conio.h>
int main(){
clrscr();
int a,b,c,i=1,j=0;
cout <<"enter a num:";
cin >>a;
c=a;
while(c>0){
c/=10;
j++;
}
c=0;
while(a>0){
b=a%10;
i=1;
while(i<j){
b*=10;
i++;
}
j--;
c+=b;
a/=10;
}
cout <<"Maghloob="<<c;
getch();
return 0;
}

Program to find sum of two numbers:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

void main()
{
int a,b,s;
clrscr();
printf("Enter two no: ");
scanf("%d%d",&a,&b);
s=a+b;
printf("sum=%d",s);
getch();
}

Output:

Enter two no: 5

 6
sum=11

Program to find gross salary:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

void main()
{
int gs,bs,da,ta;
clrscr();
printf("enter basic salary: ");
scanf("%d",&bs);
da=(10*bs)/100;
ta=(12*bs)/100;
gs=bs+da+ta;
printf("gross salary=%d",gs);
getch();
}

Program to display a matrix.

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

void main()
{
int a[3][2],b[3][2],i,j;
clrscr();
printf("enter value for a matrix: ");
for(i=0;i<3;i++)
{
for(j=0;j<2;j++)
scanf("%d",&a[i][j]);
}
printf("enter value for b matrix: ");
for(i=0;i<3;i++)
{
for(j=0;j<2;j++)
scanf("%d",&b[i][j]);
}
printf("\na matrix is\n\n");
for(i=0;i<3;i++)
{
for(j=0;j<2;j++)
{
printf(" %d ",a[i][j]);
}
printf("\n");
}

printf("\nb matrix is\n\n");

for(i=0;i<3;i++)
{
for(j=0;j<2;j++)
{
printf(" %d ",b[i][j]);
}
printf("\n");
}
getch();
}

Program to find area and circumference of circle

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

void main()
{
int r;
float pi=3.14,area,ci;
clrscr();
printf("enter radius of circle: ");
scanf("%d",&r);
area=pi*r*r;
printf("area of circle=%f",area);
ci=2*pi*r;
printf("circumference=%f",ci);
getch();
}
Program to find the simple interest:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

void main()
{
int p,r,t,si;
clrscr();
printf("enter principle, Rate of interest & time to
find simple interest: ");
scanf("%d%d%d",&p,&r,&t);
si=(p*r*t)/100;
printf("simple intrest= %d",si);
getch();
}

Program to reverse a given number:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

void main()
{
int n,a,r=0;
clrscr();
printf("enter any no to get its reverse: ");
scanf("%d",&n);
while(n>=1)
{
a=n%10;
r=r*10+a;
n=n/10;
}
printf("reverse=%d",r);
getch();
}
Program to display series and find sum of 1+3+5+……..+n.

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

void main()
{
int n,i,sum=0;
clrscr();
printf("Enter any no: ");
scanf("%d",&n);
for(i=1;i<n;i=i+2)
{
printf("%d+",i);
sum=sum+i;
}
printf("%d",n);
printf("\nsum=%d",sum+n);
getch();

Program to find whether given no is even or odd.

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>

void main()
{
int n;
clrscr();
printf("enter any no: ");
scanf("%d",&n);
if(n%2==0)
printf("no is even");
else
printf("no is odd");
getch();
}