www.covenantuniversity.edu.

ng

Introduction to C Programming
Language
(Week 7)
The CSC121 Team
 Learning Objectives
 At the end of this lecture students should
understand:
– The structure of a C-program
– What variables, operators, expressions, statements,
compiler, keywords, header files, data types, input and
output functions are in C programming language

2
 Introduction
 There are many different languages that can be
used to program a computer.
 The most basic of these is machine language
– It is a collection of very detailed, cryptic instructions
that control the computer’s internal circuitry

3
 Introduction
 Very few computer programs are actually written
in machine language because
– Machine language is very cumbersome to work with
– Machine language program written for one type of
computer cannot be run on another type of computer
without significant alterations

4
 Introduction
 Usually a computer program will be written in
some high-level language, whose instruction is
more compatible with human languages and
human thought processes.
 Most of these are general-purpose languages such
as C.

5
 Advantages of High-Level languages over Machine
Language

 Simplicity
– It greatly simplifies the task of writing complete,
correct programs
 Uniformity
– The rules for programming in a particular high-level
language are much the same for all computers

6
 Advantages of High-Level languages over Machine
Language

 Portability
– A program written for one computer can generally be
run on many different computers with little or no
alteration

7
Converting High-Level languages to Machine Language

 A program that is written in a high-level language

must, however, be translated into machine
language before it can be executed
 The process is referred to as compilation or
interpretation.

8
 Compiler
 A compiler or interpreter is itself a computer
program.
 It accepts a program written in high-level language
(e.g., C) as input, and generates a corresponding
machine-language as output

9
 Compiler
 The original high-level program is called the
source program, and the resulting machine-
language program is called the object program

10
 Introduction to C
 C is a general-purpose, structured programming
language
– General purpose in the sense that it can be used for
systems programming (e.g. for writing operating
systems) as well as for applications programming
(e.g. for writing programs to solve specific problems)

11
 Introduction to C
 C is a general-purpose, structured programming
language
– Structured in the sense that its instructions consist of
terms that resemble algebraic expressions, augmented
by certain English keywords such as if, else, for, do and
while

12
 Structure of a C program
 Every C program consists of one or more modules called
functions.
– One of the functions must be called main.

 The program will always begin by executing the main

function
 Any other function definitions must be defined separately,
either ahead of or after main
13
 Structure of a C program
 Each function must contain:
– A function heading, which consists of the function name,
followed by an optional list of arguments, enclosed in
parentheses
– A list of argument declarations, if arguments are included in
the heading
– A compound statement, which comprises the remainder of
the function
14
 Structure of a C program
 The arguments are symbols that represent
information being passed between the function and
other parts of the program
– Arguments are also referred to as parameters
 Each compound statement is enclosed within a pair
of braces, i.e. { }.
15
 Structure of a C program
 Comments (remarks) may appear anywhere within
a program, as long as they are placed within the
delimiters /* and */ (e.g., /* this is
a comment */)
– Comments are helpful in identifying a program’s
principal features or in explaining the underlying logic
of various program features
16
 Structure of a C program
 In the slide that follows we will show a C program
for calculating the area of a circle and further
explain the elements that make up the program

17
 /* program to calculate the area of a circle */

#include <stdio.h> Header file

int main() Variables

{
Data type float radius, area;

printf("Radius = ? ");
Output function Statements
scanf("%f", &radius);
Input function
area = 3.14159 * radius * radius;
printf("Area = %f", area);
}

Figure 1: A C program to calculate area of a circle

18
 Variables
 As discussed in Week 2, a variable is an identifier
whose value can change during processing of a set
of instructions
 Note: The information represented by a variable may
change in the course of program execution, however,
the data type associated with the variable cannot
change
19
 Variables
 The rules for naming variables as discussed in Week 2
apply to variables in C.
– Short and clear names
– Avoiding spaces in variable names
– Starting variables with letters and not numbers
– Avoiding the use of mathematical operators in variable names
– Consistency in the use of upper and lower-case characters
20
 Data Types
 C supports several different types of data. The
basic data types are listed below:
Data Type Description Typical Memory Requirements
int Integer quantity 2 bytes
char Single character 1 byte
float Floating-point number 4 bytes
double Double-precision floating-point number 8 bytes

21
 Data Types
 The basic data types can be augmented by the use
of the data type qualifiers short, long, signed
and unsigned.
– For example, integer quantities can be defined as
short int, long int or unsigned int.

22
 Operators
 C includes a large number of operators which fall into
the following category:
– Arithmetic operators
– Unary operators
– Relational and logical operators
– Assignment operators
– The conditional operator
23
 Arithmetic Operators
 There are five arithmetic operator in C. They are

Operator Purpose
+ Addition
- Subtraction
* Multiplication
/ Division
% Remainder after integer division

24
 Unary Operators
 This class of operators act on a single operand to
produce a new value.
 The next slide gives some examples

25
 The various Unary Operators
Operator Name How it is written Example of Use
Unary minus A minus sign is made to preceed a -743,
numerical constant -0.2,
-3 * (x + y)
Pre-increment The increment operator (++) is placed ++counter
before the numeric variable
Post-increment The increment operator (++) is placed counter++
after the numeric variable
Pre-decrement The decrement operator (++) is placed --counter
before the numeric variable
Post-decrement The decrement operator (++) is placed counter--
after the numeric variable

26
 Relational and logical Operators
 There are four relational operators in C. They are:

Operator Meaning
< Less than
<= Less than or equal to
> Greater than
>= Greater than or equal to

27
 Relational and logical Operators
 Closely associated with the relational operators are
the following equality operators

Operator Meaning
== Equal to
!= not equal to

28
 Relational and logical Operators
 The relational and equality operators are used to
form logical expressions, which represent
conditions that are either true or false.
– The resulting expression will be of type integer, since
true is represented by integer 1 and false is represented
by the value 0

29
 Examples of Relational Operators Usage

 Suppose the i, j, and k are integer variables whose

values are 1, 2 and 3, respectively.
 Several logical expressions involving these
variables are shown in the slide that follows

30
 Examples of Relational Operators Usage
Expression Interpretation Value
i<j true 1
(i + j) >= k true 1
(j + k) > (i + 5) false 0
k != 3 false 0
j == 2 true 1

31
 Assignment Operators
 There are several different assignment operators in
C but the most commonly used assignment
operator is =.
 Assignment expressions that make use of this
operator are written in the form
identifier = expression

32
 Assignment Operators
 Where identifier generally represents a variable,
and expression represents a constant, a variable or
a more complex expression.
 Examples include
a=3
x=y
area = length * width
33
 Assignment Operators
 It is important to note that the assignment operator
= and the equality operator == are distinctly
different

34
 The Conditional Operator
 Simple conditional operations can be carried out
with the conditional operator (? :)
 It is written in the form:
expression 1 ? expression 2 : expression 3

35
 Using the Conditional Operator
 In the conditional expression shown below, assume
that i is an integer variable:
(i < 0) ? 0 : 100
 The expression thus reads if i is less than 0 then
value is 0 otherwise 100

36
 Statements
 A statement causes the computer to carry out some
action.
 There are three different classes of statements in C
namely:
– Expression statements
– Compound statements
– Control statements
37
 Expression Statements
 Several expression statements are shown below:
a = 3;
c = a + b;
++i;
printf(“Area = %f”, area);

38
 Compound Statements
 They consist of several individual statements
enclosed with a pair of braces { }.
– The individual statements may themselves be
expression statements, compound statements or control
statements
 Unlike an expression statement, a compound
statement does not end with a semicolon.
39
Example of a Compound Statement
{
pi = 3.141593;
circumference = 2 * pi * radius;
area = pi * radius * radius;
}

40 40
 Control Statements
 Control statements are used to create special
program features, such as
– Logical tests/branches: if-then, if-then-else
– Loops: for, while, do..while

41
 Keywords
 These are reserved words with predefined
meanings in C.
 They cannot be used as programmer-defined
identifiers

42
Figure 2: Standard keywords in C

43
 Header files
 C is composed of several standard libraries.
 Each library has a header also known as Header file.
 It contains prototypes (used to describe the content of the
library) for all the functions available in that particular
library.
 Some header files in C programming language are listed
in the table that follows.
44
 Header files
Header files Description
<ctype.h> Used to test characters for certain properties.
Used for converting lowercase to uppercases vice versa.
<float.h> Contains the floating point size limits of the system.
<errno.h> Used to report error conditions.
<limits.h> Contains the integral size limit of the System.
<math.h> Used for mathematical operations

45 45
 Header files
Header files Description
<stdio.h> Used for standard input/output operations
<stdlib.h> Used for conversion of text to numbers vice versa, memory
allocation and other utility operations
<string.h> Used for string processing operations
<time.h> Used for time and date manipulations and operations.

46 46
 Output functions
 The output functions include:
– putchar: allow single characters to be displayed to the
monitor
– printf: displays single characters, numerical values and
strings to the monitor
– puts: facilitates the output of strings to the monitor

47
 The putchar Function
 In a general, a function reference can be written as
putchar(character variable)
 Example: a C program could contain the following
statements
char c;
.....
putchar(c);
48
 The printf Function
 The printf function is written as
printf(control string, arg1, arg2, . . . , argn)
 Where control string refers to a string that contains
formatting information, and arg1, arg2, . . . , argn
are arguments that represent the individual output
data items
49
 The printf Function Example
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>
main() /* print several floating-point numbers */
{
float i = 2.0, j = 3.0;
printf("%f %f %f %f", i, j, i+j, sqrt(i+j));
}

50 50
 The puts Function
 The puts function offers a simple alternative to
printf
#include <stdio.h>
main() /* read and write a line of text */
{
char line[80];
gets(line);
puts(line);
}

51
 Input functions
 The input functions are:
– getchar: allow single characters to be obtained from the
keyboard
– scanf: allows single characters, numerical values and
strings to be obtained from the keyboard
– gets: facilitates the input of strings from the keyboard

52
 The getchar Function
 In general terms, a function reference can be written as
character variable = getchar();
 Example: a C program contains the following statements
char c;
…..
c = getchar();

53
 The scanf Function
 The scanf function is written as
scanf(control string, arg1, arg2, . . ., argn)
 Where control string refers to a string containing
certain required formatting information,
 arg1, arg2, . . ., argn are arguments that represent
the individual input data items
54
 The scanf Function
 The control string consists of individual groups of
characters, with one character group for each input data
item.
 Each character group must begin with a percent sign (%).
– A single character group consists of the percent sign, followed
by a conversion character which indicates the type of the
corresponding data item.

55
Conversion Character Meaning
c Data item is a single character
d Data item is a decimal integer
e Data item is a floating-point value
f Data item is a floating-point value
g Data item is a floating-point value
h Data item is a short integer
i Data item is a decimal, hexadecimal or octal integer
o Data item is an octal integer
s Data item is a string followed by a whitespace character
u Data item is an unsigned decimal integer
x Data item is a hexadecimal integer

56
 scanf Example
#include <stdio.h>
main( )
{
char item[20];
int partno;
float cost;
.....
scanf("%s %d % f", item, &partno, &cost);
.....
}
57 57
 The gets Function
 The gets function offers a simple alternative to
scanf
#include <stdio.h>
main() /* read and write a line of text */
{
char line[80];
gets(line); // read a line of input
puts(line);
}

58
 Question 1: Find the results of the following
equations by writing a C program given the
values A = 12, B = 3, C = 6, D = 2:
1. F = A + B/C - D ^2
2. F = (A + B)/ C - D ^2
3. F = A + B/(C - D ^ 2)
4. F = (A + B)\ D ^ 2
59
 Question 2:
 Roger would like to know the average of his test
scores. Write an equation that would calculate the
average given five test scores.
 Write a C program to solve this problem.

60