1. Getting Started with C

2. C Programming Language
What is C ?
C is a structured, relatively low-level, portable programming language.
Why study C?
Many popular software tools are written in C.
Has strongly influenced many other languages.
C-shell, java, C++, Perl, etc.
Forces the user to understand fundamental aspects of programming.
Very concise language.

3. History of C C
Evolved by Ritchie from two previous programming languages, BCPL and B
Used to develop UNIX
Used to write modern operating systems
Hardware independent (portable)
By late 1970's C had evolved to "traditional C"

4. History of C Standardization
Many slight variations of C existed, and were incompatible
Committee formed to create a "unambiguous, machine-independent" definition
Standard created in 1989, updated in 1999

5. First C Program

6. A Simple C Program Comments
A first program in C */
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
printf( "Welcome to C!\n" );
return 0; }
Comments
Text surrounded by /* and */ is ignored by computer
Used to describe program
#include <stdio.h>
Preprocessor directive
Tells computer to load contents of a certain file
<stdio.h> allows standard input/output operations
Welcome to C!

7. A Simple C Program, Cont. int main()
C programs contain one or more functions, exactly one of which must be main
Parenthesis used to indicate a function
int means that main "returns" an integer value
Braces ({ and }) indicate a block
The bodies of all functions must be contained in braces

8. 2.2 A Simple C Program: Printing a Line of Text
Return 0;
A way to exit a function
Return 0, in this case, means that the program terminated normally

9. User variables, reading user input
Second C Program
User variables, reading user input

10. Addition program */
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int integer1, integer2, sum; /* declaration */
printf( "Enter first integer\n" ); /* prompt */
scanf( "%d", &integer1 ); /* read an integer */
printf( "Enter second integer\n" ); /* prompt */
scanf( "%d", &integer2 ); /* read an integer */
sum = integer1 + integer2; /* assignment of sum */
printf( "Sum is %d\n", sum ); /* print sum */
return 0; /* indicate that program ended successfully */ }
Enter first integer 45
Enter second integer 72
Sum is 117

11. 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

12. 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 */ }

13. 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;

14. Basic C variable types char int float double
There are four basic data types in C:
char
A single byte capable of holding one character in the local character set.
int
An integer of unspecified size
float
Single-precision floating point
double
Double-precision floating point

15. Statements Note: all statements end with a semicolon!
Statements can (with a few exceptions) be broken across lines or ganged on a single line
Commas separate multiple declarations
Blank lines have no effect
Extra spaces between tokens has no effect.
Comments are ignored by the compiler

16. 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.

17. printf(), cont. printf(format descriptor, var1, var2, …);
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 %

18. Printf() examples printf(“%s\n”, “hello world”);
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.

19. 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

20. Scanf function scanf( format-specifier, &var1, &var2, etc.);
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!