Variables
A variable is a container that stores a ‘value.’ In the kitchen, we have containers
storing rice, dal, sugar, etc. Similar to that variable in c stores the value of a
constant. Example:
a=3 a is assigned “3”
b = 4.7 b is assigned “4.7”
c = 'A' c is assigned “A”
Rules for naming variables in c:
1. The first character must be an alphabet or underscore (_).
2. No commas or blanks are allowed.
3. No special symbol other than underscore is allowed
4. Variable names are case sensitive
Constants
An entity whose value doesn’t change is called a constant.
Types of constant
Primarily there are 3 types of constant:
1. Integer Constant -1,6,7,9
2. Real Constant -322.1,2.5,7.0
3. Character Constant ‘a’,’$’,’@’(must be enclosed within single inverted commas)
Keywords
These are reserved words whose meaning is already known to the compiler. There
are 32 keywords available in c:
auto double int struct
break long else switch
case return enum typedef
char register extern union
const short float unsigned
continue signed for void
default sizeof goto volatile
do static if while
Our first C program
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf(“Hello, I am learning C with Harry”);
return 0;
}
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File : first.c
The basic structure of a C program
All c programs have to follow a basic structure. A c program starts with the main
function and executes instructions presents inside it. Each instruction terminated
with a semicolon(;)
There are some basic rules which are applicable to all the c programs:
1. Every program's execution starts from the main function.
2. All the statements are terminated with a semi-colon.
3. Instructions are case-sensitive.
4. Instructions are executed in the same order in which they are written.
Comments
Comments are used to clarify something about the program in plain language. It is a
way for us to add notes to our program. There are two types of comments in c:
1. Single line comment: //This is a comment.
2. Multi-line comment : /*This is multi-line comment*/
Comments in a C program are not executed and ignored.
Compilation and execution
A compiler is a computer program that converts a c program into machine language
so that it can be easily understood by the computer.
A program is written in plain text. This plain text is a combination of instructions in a
particular sequence. The compiler performs some basic checks and finally converts
the program into an executable.
Library functions
C language has a lot of valuable library functions which is used to carry out a certain
task; for instance, printf function is used to print values on the screen.
printf(“This is %d”,i);
// %d for integers (int)
// %f for real values (float)
// %c for characters (char)
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Types of variables
Integer variables int a=3;
Real variables int a=7.7 (wrong as 7.7 is real) ; float a=7.7;
Character variables char a=’B’;
Receiving input from the user
In order to take input from the user and assign it to a variable, we use scanf function.
The syntax for using scanf:
scanf(“%d”,&i); // [This & is important]
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& is the “address of” operator, and it means that the supplied value should be copied
to the address which is indicated by variable i.
