CSC214: C Programming language 2024

CSC214: C Programming language

Lecture Notes

Introduction
Hi, Welcome to C; a simple yet powerful computer programming language
that’s suitable for both computer science students with little or no
programming experience and for experienced programmers to use in
building important software systems.

C programming language was created by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell

Telephone Laboratories, America in 1972. The language was produced for a
specific purpose: to design the UNIX operating system (which is used on
many computers). Because C is such a powerful and flexible language, its
use quickly spread beyond Bell Labs. Programmers everywhere began using
it to write programs in different disciplines like education, Health,
Entertainment etc.

Computer: Software and Hardware

Computer is an electronic device that can perform computation
(manipulation) and make logical decision faster than human beings can.
Many of today’s personal computers can perform billions of calculations in
one second—more than a human can perform in a lifetime. computer
accepts and process data under the control of set of instructions called
computer programs (Software). A computer consists of various devices
referred to as hardware (e.g., the keyboard, screen, mouse, hard disks,
memory, DVD drives and processing units).

Data Types and Variables in C

A data specifies the type of data a variable can store such as integer,
floating, character.

The Basic data type/Primitive

I. Character; The most simplest data type in C. it stores a single
character/number/letter enclosed within a single quote and requires a
single byte of memory. e.g. 'A', 'e', '8'.
II. Integral; Integral data types allow only integer, or whole numbers
with no decimal points. Integral data type can be singed or

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 CSC214: C Programming language 2024

unsigned. The signed integral data type means that the value may be
either positive or negative. The unsigned data type means the
number may only be positive. e.g. int age= 10;
Additionally, integral data type may be either short or long,
whereby it tells the computer the size of the integral number. In most
of the cases, short is 16 bits and long is 32 bits.

III. Floating-Point; Real numbers, those with decimal points, are stored
as floating-point data types. For floating-point values, the computer
stores the mantissa and the exponent. e.g float CGPA=4.20;
There are three different floating-point data types: float,
double, and long double. These data types are differ from each other
in terms of the size. Generally, a float is 32 bits, a double is 64 bits,
and a long double is 80 bits. e.g. float PI=3.1482;

Derived /Non-Primitive Data Type

I. Array; An array is a collection of elements of the same type stored in
contiguous memory location. e.g. int number = {1,2,3,4,5};
II. Structure (struct); is a user defined data type that groups different
types of variables under a single name. It is like a record that can hold
a multiple pieces of related information.e.g
struct student {
char name =[50]="Ibrahim Nura";
int Adm_No=5687;
int level=200;
float CGPA=4.32; }
III. Pointer; is a variable that stores the memory address of another
variable. e.g. int var=10; int *ptr=&var;
IV. Enumerate (enum); it consist of a set of list of items enclosed in curly
braces. e.g. enum Day={Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday};

Variables in C
Variables represent some segment of memory location in computer.
Different values placed in the storage depend on the value type. Variable
should be declared prior to storage of any values. When declaring variables
in C, rules must be followed, such as:
 Variable name must begin with an alpha character such as A through Z
or an underscore, not a number. For example, Age and _Age are valid
variable names, but 2Lab and 2lab are not valid variable names.
 Spacing in a variable name is not allowed. If the variable name
contains more than one word, there should be underscore in place of
the space. For example, course code should be CourseCode,
course_code or Course_Code.
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 C is case-sensitive; upper- and lowercase characters are not treated

the same. For example, Total, total, and TOTAL would be considered
as three different variable names. For readability, many C
programmers capitalized the first character of each word in the
variable and limit the use of the underscore.
 Reserve words are not allowed. The C compiler looks for certain key
words, words with special meanings, when it compiles the program.
They are treated as reserved words –set aside for use by the compiler.
A list of 32 reserved words is shown in this Table

auto double int struct

break else long Switch
case enum register typedef
char extern return union
const float short unsigned
continue for signed void
default goto sizeof volatile
do if static while

Data Types and Declarations

Data types are some reserve words used to specify the values whether they
are integral, real, character, etc. Different storage space would be allocated
depends on the Data Type. Declaration is a process of reserving storage area
in order to store different values temporary.
Declaration
Whenever we use a value or a variable, we will declare it and its data type.
Variables must be clearly declared before they are used. Each declaration
statement in C language must end with a semicolon. There are various way
of declaring variables, and the following are some examples of variable
declaration.

int AdmissionNo;
int CourseCode = 216;
int Lab1, Lab2, Lab3;
Unsigned int Score1 = 47, Score2 = 100;

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Operators In C

Arithmetic operators

= Assignment
() parentheses (brackets)
* multiplication
/ division
% modulus (integer remainder)
+ add
- Subtract
++ Increment
-- Decrement

Assignment Operators

= Assignment
+= Add and assign
-= Subtract and assign
*= Multiply and assign
%= Modulus and assign

Logical and relational operators

== equal to
!= not equal to
> greater than
>= greater than or equal to
< less than
<= less than or equal to
&& logical AND
|| logical OR
! logical NOT

Increment and Decrement Operators

++ increment
-- decrement

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Structure of C program

1 /*Comment*/
2 Preprocessor
3
4 Function Main()
5 {
6 Body of the program
7 -----------------------
8 -----------------------
9 -----------------------
10 }

Input and Output Statements

In most of our programs we create, we will need to display information
on the screen or read information from the keyboard. if You want your
programs to display information on-screen, the most frequently used ways
to do this is with C function called printf(), while to read or capture data
from the keyboard the scanf( ) function is used.

output
Output in C means display or print messages and values on the screen.
The printf( ) function is used to produce such output. let see a simple c
program: printing a line of text.

1 #include <stdio.h>
2 /*this header include the contents of the standard input/output
3 library functions printf.*/
4 main (void)
5 /*c begins executing at the function main, void means main
6 does not receive any information*/
7 {
8 /*the left brace, {, begins the body of every function*/
9 printf ("welcome to C!");
10 /*instructs the computer to print on the screen the string of
11 characters marked by quotation marks*/
12 }
13 /*the right brace }, indicates that the end of main has been
14 reached*

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Conversion Codes
When we use the printf( ) or scanf() functions, conversion are used
to reserve space for a value to be inputted from an input device like
keyboard or value to be outputted on a screen – the value of a variable or
expression, and to show how those values should be printed. All conversion
codes begin with a % symbol and with a type specifier.

Data type Specifiers Example Output

Char c "%c",'A' A
Int d "%d", 123 123
i "%i", 345 345
Float or f "%f",123.45 123.45
double g "%g", 123.45 123.45
"%g", 123.00 123

Example:
1 #include <stdio.h>
2 main(void)
3 {
4 int x = 100;
5 printf(“The value in variable x is: %i”, x);
6 }
output of the above program is:
The value in variable x is: 100
Explanation:
All the characters in the format are printable except the conversion code %i,
which reserves space for an integer value to print. The format requires a
value to fill in that space, so C takes the value of x, and puts it there.

Brainstorming: Using Multiple printfs

 write simple C program with multiple printf function and display the
output
 Use \n (newline) escape sequence within Printf functions and observe
the difference
 use the puts function, instead of Printf and observe the difference

Input
The input in C enables user to enter values for e.g. data entry, with the help
of scanf( ). The function enables programmer to prompt for data entry
during program execution. Appropriate Conversion Codes should be specified
in order to display the required value. Consider the following example:

1 #include <stdio.h>

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2 void main(void)
3 {
4 int x;
5 printf("Enter values for x: ");
6 scanf("%i", &x,);
7 printf("Your int is %i \n", x);
8 }

Explanation:
The scanf( ) function takes input characters and then divide them into sets
of characters to convert to appropriate data types for the locations. The
ampersands (&) in front of the variable x, is the locations in main memory –
the memory addresses of x.

C Functions
A function is a named, independent section of C code that performs a
specific task and optionally returns a value to the calling program or/and
receives values(s) from the calling program.

 Basically there are two categories of function:

1. Standard Library functions: available in C standard library such

as stdio.h, math.h, string.h etc, these libraries are collection of
pre-written code that you can use to perform common tasks,
such as input/output operations, mathematical computation and
more.

2. User-defined functions: functions that programmers create for

specialized tasks such as graphic and multimedia libraries,
implementation extensions or dependent etc.

 Function has the following characteristics:

1. Named with unique name .

2. Performs a specific task - Task is a discrete job that the program

must perform as part of its overall operation, such as sending a
line of text to the printer, sorting descending into numerical
order, or calculating a cube root, etc.

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3. Independent - A function can perform its task without

interference from or interfering with other parts of the program.

4. May receive values from the calling program (caller) - Calling

program can pass values to function for processing whether
directly or indirectly (by reference).

5. May return a value to the calling program – the called function

may pass something back to the calling program.

Control Structure
Control structures are three types of programming techniques used to
specify the order in which computations are performed. By using them in
various combinations you can write any program. The three structures are:
I. Selection. A selection structure is a choice between sets of
operations.
II. Sequence. A sequence structure is one operation after another, i.e.
each statement in source code will be executed one by one in a
sequential order.
III. Iteration. An iteration structure is a repetition of a set of operations,
which would be
discussed on next chapter.

Selection
C provides three types of selection structure in the form of statements.
1. Single selection
2. Double selection
3. Multiple selection

1. Single Selection (If statement)

The if selection statement; perform or select an action if a condition is true
or skip the action if the condition is false.

if (condition) if (grade >= 40)

statement; {
printf("passed\n");
}
2. Double selection (If...Else statement)
The if ... else selection statement; statement performs an action of a
condition is true and perform a different action if the condition is false

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if (condition) if (grade >= 40) {

statement; printf("passed\n");
}
else else {
statement; printf(failed\n)
}

3. Multiple selection (Switch statement)

The switch selection statement; performs one of many different actions
depending on the value of an expression.

switch(expression){
case expression :
statement(s);
break; /*optional*/
case expression :
statem ent(s);
break; /*optional*/
default : /*Optional*/
statement(s);
}

The following rules apply to a switch statement:

 The expression used in a switch statement must have an integral
type, or be of class has a single conversion function to an integral.
 You can have any number of case statements within a switch. Each
case is followed by the value to be compared to and a colon.
 When the variable being switched on is equal to a case, the
statements following that case will execute until a break statement is
reached.
 When a break statement is reached, the switch terminates, and the
flow of control jumps to the next line following the switch statement.
 A switch statement can have an optional default case, which must
appear at the end of the switch. The default case can be used for
performing a task when none of the cases is true. No break is needed
in the default case.

Example:

#include <stdio.h>
int main () {
char grade;
printf("Enter Your grade:");

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scanf("%c", &grade);

switch(grade)
{
case 'A' :
printf("Excellent!\n" );
break;
case 'B' :
case 'C' :
printf("Well done\n" );
break;
case 'D' :
printf("You passed\n" );
break;
case 'F' :
printf("Better try again\n" );
break;
default :
printf("Invalid grade\n" );

}
printf("Your grade is %c\n", grade );
}

Iteration
The iteration can be defined as repeating the same process multiple times
until a specific condition satisfies.
An iteration statement (also called an repetition statement or
loop) allows you to specify that an action is to be repeated while some
condition remains true. C provides three types of iteration structures in the
form of statements, namely:

I. while,
II. do…while, and
III. for.

components of a loop
• Counter
• Initialization of the counter with initial value
• Condition to check with the optimum value of the counter
• Statement(s) to be executed by iteration
• Increment/decrement

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I. While Iteration Statement

A while loop begins with the keyword while. Condition is enclosed in
parenthesis; each statement in the block is indented one level and ends with
a semicolon; and there is no semicolon after the block’s closing brace. The C
compiler requires the punctuation.

initialisation;
while(condition)
{
statements to be executed ;
increment/decrement;
}

Example; Write a C-program to print 10 natural numbers

#include<stdio.h>
main() {
int i=1;
while(i<=10)
{
printf("%d \n",i);
i++;
}
}

II. do-while Iteration statement

The do-while loop continues until a given condition satisfies. It is also
called post tested loop. It is used when it is necessary to execute the loop at
least once (mostly menu driven programs). The syntax of do-while loop in c
language is given below:

do
{
statement;
}
while(condition);

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Example:
#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
int i=1;
do
{
printf("%d \n",i);
i++;
}
while(i<=10); }

III. For Iteration Statement

The for iteration statement handles all the details within the bracket of
For iteration statement. Let see the syntax of For loop.

for (initialization; condition; increment) {

statement;
}
To illustrate its power, let’s rewrite the above program using for loop.

Example:

#include<stdio.h>
main()
{
for(i=1; i<=10; i++)
printf("%d \n",i);
}

Nested For Loops

A For loop within another is known as nested for loop. When there is any
nested loops the inner once would always be executed and repeated prior to
the outer once. The structure of a nested loop

for (initialization; test; counter)

for (initialization; test; counter)
{
statement;
statement
}
statement;
statement;

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