Introduction To C Programming Language: Dr. Ajay Pratap

Introduction to C Programming Language
Dr. Ajay Pratap
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi, India
ajay.cse@iitbhu.ac.in
Dr. Ajay Pratap (IIT (BHU), Varanasi) Introduction to C Programming Language ajay.cse@iitbhu.ac.in 1 / 20
Content of the lecture
Content of the lecture

What is C ?
Types of programming languages
Features of C
Structure of a C program
Executing a C program
Characteristics and applications
What is C ?
What is C ?
C is a programming language developed at AT & T’s Bell

Laboratories of USA in 1972.
Designed and written by a man named Dennis Ritchie.
Late seventies C began to replace the more familiar languages of that
time like, PL/I (IBM, 1964), FORTRAN (John Backus and IBM,
1957), ALGOL 60 (1960), CPL (Cambridge, 1963), BCPL (Martin
Richard, 1967), B (Ken Thompson, 1970), etc.
It wasn’t made the ‘official’ Bell Labs language.
Reason for popularity of C: reliable, simple and easy to use.
Types of Programming Languages
Generally two types of computer programming languages are defined:

Low level language
High level language

Low level language
High level language
Low Level Language: Close to machine code (0s and 1s).
Instructions are written in binary forms. For examples:

Low level language
High level language
Machine language
Assembly language

Low level language
High level language
Machine language
Assembly language
Machine Language (1 GL): Machine language is a collection of
binary digits orbits that the computer reads and interprets.

Low level language
High level language
Machine language
Assembly language
Machine Language (1 GL): Machine language is a collection of
binary digits orbits that the computer reads and interprets.
Easy for machines but difficult for human being.
Fast because no translation program is required for the CPU.
Machine dependent, difficult to modify, difficult to program.
Assembly Language (2 GL): A program written in assembly
language consists of a series of instructions mnemonics that
correspond to a stream of executable instructions, when translated by
an assembler, that can be loaded into memory and executed.
Advantages: Easy to understand and use, easier to locate and
correct errors, easy to modify, efficiency of machine language.
Disadvantages: Machine dependent, knowledge of hardware
required, machine level coding.
High Level Languages (3 GL): Allow us to write computer code

using instructions resembling everyday spoken language (for example:
print, if, while) which are then translated into machine language to be
executed.

executed.
Some programming languages use a compiler to perform this
translation and others use an interpreter.

executed.
Some programming languages use a compiler to perform this
translation and others use an interpreter.
Example of high level languages: ADA, C, C++, JAVA, BASIC,
COBOL, PASCAL, PHYTON.
Comparison
1
PROG0101 Fundamentals of Programming, FTMS College, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
Other Types of Programming Languages
The fourth generation languages,or 4GL,are languages that consist of

statements similar to statements in a human language. Fourth
generation languages are commonly used in database programming
and scripts.
Other Types of Programming Languages
The fourth generation languages,or 4GL,are languages that consist of

statements similar to statements in a human language. Fourth
generation languages are commonly used in database programming
and scripts.
The fifth generation languages, or 5GL, are programming languages
that contain visual tools to help develop a program. A good example
of a fifth generation language is Visual Basic.
Features & Characteristics of C
Simple
Powerful
Fast and efficient
Portable
Function rich library
Easy to extend
Variety of datatype and powerful operators
Portable
Pointers
Recursion
Extensible
Structure of C Language
3
Yashwanth Kanetker, “Let Us C”, BPB Publication, 2005.
Basic C program has following parts:

Preprocessor Command: Includes all standard input-output files before
compiling any C program.
Functions: Function is a group of statements that together perform a
task.
Variables: Name given to a storage area that our programs can
manipulate
Statements & Expressions

Preprocessor Command: Includes all standard input-output files before
compiling any C program.
Functions: Function is a group of statements that together perform a
task.
Variables: Name given to a storage area that our programs can
manipulate
Statements & Expressions
Comments: /*Multi-line comment */
// single line comment
A simple description can also be found: https://data-flair.
training/blogs/basic-structure-of-c-program/
Hello World Program
Compile and Execute C Program
Open a text editor and write the code

Save the file as x.c
4
Other compilation and execution procedure can be learned during the lab hours.

Open a command prompt and go to the directory where you have
saved the file.
Type gcc x.c and press enter to compile your code.
If there are no errors in your code, the command prompt will take you
to the next line and would generate a.out executable file.
Type a.out to execute your program.
The output printed on the screen.
4

saved the file.
GCC on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLjN6jAg-sY
4

saved the file.
GCC on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLjN6jAg-sY
Command Prompt ( cmd ) on Windows 10:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQtCsiaeiIE
4
3
E. Balagurusamy ”Programming in ANSI C”
Applications of C
Due to portability and efficiency, C is used to develop the system as

well as application software.
System Software:
Operating system, interpreters, compilers, assemblers, editors, loaders,
linkers.
Application Software:
Database systems, graphics packages, spread sheets, word processors,
office automation, scientific and engineering applications.
Addition of two numbers
C Input Output (I/O)
The printf() is a library function to send formatted output to the

screen. The function prints the string inside quotations.
To use printf() in our program, we need to include stdio.h header file
using the #include < stdio.h > statement.
We use %d format specifier to print int types. Here, the %d inside
the quotations will be replaced by the value of variable.
C Input Output (I/O)
The printf() is a library function to send formatted output to the

screen. The function prints the string inside quotations.
To use printf() in our program, we need to include stdio.h header file
using the #include < stdio.h > statement.
We use %d format specifier to print int types. Here, the %d inside
the quotations will be replaced by the value of variable.
In C programming, scanf() is one of the commonly used function to
take input from the user. The scanf() function reads formatted input
from the standard input such as keyboards.
Here, we have used %d format specifier inside the scanf() function to
take int input from the user. When the user enters an integer, it is
stored in the variable.
Suggested Readings/Reference Materials
1st Chapter of:

E. Balagurusamy ”Programming in ANSI C”
Yashavant P. Kanetkar ”Let US C”

Introduction To C Programming Language: Dr. Ajay Pratap

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Introduction to C Programming Language

Dr. Ajay Pratap

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi, India

Content of the lecture

Content of the lecture

C is a programming language developed at AT & T’s Bell

Generally two types of computer programming languages are defined:

Generally two types of computer programming languages are defined:

Generally two types of computer programming languages are defined:

Generally two types of computer programming languages are defined:

Generally two types of computer programming languages are defined:

Generally two types of computer programming languages are defined:

High Level Languages (3 GL): Allow us to write computer code

High Level Languages (3 GL): Allow us to write computer code

High Level Languages (3 GL): Allow us to write computer code

The fourth generation languages,or 4GL,are languages that consist of

The fourth generation languages,or 4GL,are languages that consist of

Basic C program has following parts:

Basic C program has following parts:

Basic C program has following parts:

Open a text editor and write the code

Open a text editor and write the code

Open a text editor and write the code

Open a text editor and write the code

Due to portability and efficiency, C is used to develop the system as

The printf() is a library function to send formatted output to the

The printf() is a library function to send formatted output to the

1st Chapter of:

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