Beginner’s Guide to C Language Programming

C is a commonly used programming language and it is used as a reference language for computer science in the world. This language is learned at school to students at school level with Python language and Java.

C is a low programming language and here we will cover different featues of this language. So let’s get started with

Introduction to C

C is a very famous programming language system for producing different operating systems, databases, and kernel drivers. It was first time used in the 1970s and is still considered as the base language of programming language.

C is considered a very basic programming language. Any good programmer with C, concepts must learn other languages such as Java, Python, C#, etc.

What is a C Compiler

C compiler is software that converts human-readable C language code into machine coding that can applied with the use of a computer’s central processing unit (CPU). There are many C compilers exits like GCC, Microsoft Visual C++ compiler Clang TinyCC

History of the C Programming

Language	Year	Developer
Algol	1960	International Group
BCPL	1967	Martin Richard
B	1970	Ken Thompson
K & R C	1978	Kernighan & Dennis Ritchie
ANSI C	1989	ANSI Committee
ANSI/ISO C	1990	ISO Committee
C99	1999	Standardization Committee

Features of C Language

• The simple syntax and structured method help C language to easily learn.
• C is a high-speed programming language since it is a static programming language that is faster as compared to languages such as JavaScript and Python. C is compiler-based which is the main feature for high-speed code compilation and execution.
• This language also has features for wiring code when and running it anywhere over the computer. It shows machines not based on C language.
• C is a low-power memory management system offered with the use of a pointer and different functions such as realloc(), free(), etc.
• It also has a pointer that helps to get memory access. It can start pointers like arrays, variables, etc.
• C also offers features such as programming in a structured way that helps to code for different components that use functions stored in libraries.

Data Types in C

Primitive Data

• Primitive data types are very basic data types that are used for denoting basic values like integers floats and characters.

User Defined Data Types

• These types of data are defined by users.

Derived Types

• The data types are derived from other data types like primitive data types are called Derived Data Types

Data Type	Size (bytes)	Range	Format Specifier
short int	2	-32,768 to 32,767	%hd
unsigned short int	2	0 to 65,535	%hu
unsigned int	4	0 to 4,294,967,295	%u
signed char	1	-128 to 127	%c
unsigned char	1	0 to 255	%c
float	4	1.2E-38 to 3.4E+38	%f
double	8	1.7E-308 to 1.7E+308	%lf
long double	16	3.4E-4932 to 1.1E+4932	%Lf
int	4	-2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647	%d
long int	4	-2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647	%ld
unsigned long int	4	0 to 4,294,967,295	%lu
long long int	8	-(2^63) to (2^63)-1	%lld
unsigned long long int	8	0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615	%llu

Expressions and Operators in C

Symbol	Operator	Syntax
+	Plus	a + b
–	Minus	a – b
*	Multiply	a * b
/	Divide	a / b
%	Modulus	a % b
+	Unary Plus	+a
–	Unary Minus	-a
++	Increment	a++
—	Decrement	a–

Structs in C

The structure of C language is called Strcuts a method for grouping related variables in a single point. Every variable in the structure is called a member of the structure. Contrary to an array the structure comes with different data types  (int, float, char, etc.).

Arrays in C

The array in C is a fixed-size collection of the same types of data stored in contiguous memory points. It is used for storing collection of primitive data types like int, char, float, etc., and operated and user driver data types for example pointers, structures, and dynamic arrays.

Pointers in C

The pointers of C languages are defined as variables that come with the addresses of different variables of the same data types. A pointer is used for accessing the memory of variables and then manipulating their addresses in a program.

Structures and Unions in C

For C programming structure and union are user-defined data types that come with different members of data types. Unions handle memory effectively while structures are used when needed to store distinct featues of the same memory region.

Stacks, Queues, and Linked Lists

Stackis data structured that is according to LIFO (LAST IN FIRST OUT).

The queue is the type that works based on FIFO or (FIRST IN FIRST OUT). In general, Stacks and Queues are applied with the use of Arrays and Linked Lists.

 Difference between C and C++

C Language

• C is a procedural programming language.
• It not support the function overloading
• It not support operator overloading
• C does not support data hiding that causes security issues

CPP

• C++ is a procedural and object-oriented programming language.
• It supported function overloading
• Operator overloading is also comfortable with C++
• Data hiding is also supported with this language