A program is a set of instructions to perform a specific task.

We need a translator to convert the English

like sentences in the program to binary code which the computer understands. The translators used are as
below.
i. Assembler
ii. Compiler
iii. Interpreter

ASSEMBLER, COMPILER and INTERPRETER
1. ASSEMBLER: As assembler translates the symbolic codes of a program in assembly language
to machine language instructions. The translation is done in the ratio one is to one symbolic
instruction to one machine code instruction.
2. COMPILER: They are translators which translate all the instructions of the program into
machine code which ca be used again and again. The source code is the input to the compiler and
object code the output to the compiler. They can also link the subroutines of the program
3. INTERPRETER: It helps the user to execute the source program just like a compiler. The only
difference to compiler is that it reads the program line by line as compared to a compiler that
reads the entire program, and generates the object code.
STRUCTURE OF A C PROGRAM
The C program contains a number of building blocks called functions. Each function performs a specific
task independently. Main sections of a C program are
i. Include Header File Section: C program depends on some header files for some function
definitions that are used in the program. Each header has an extension .h. They are included
in the beginning of a program using #include directive
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdio.h>
ii. Global Declaration: This section declares some variables that are used in more than one
functions. These variables are called global variables.
iii. Function Main(): Every program written in C must contain a main() and its executions starts
at the beginning of this function.
int main(void)
This is a function definition of main(). Parenthesis followed by main tells the user that main()
is a function. This function above tells us that the function takes no arguments and returns a
value of type int. we can also write
void main(void)
This functions takes no arguments and returns nothing. It can also be written as
void main().
{}