Prev Next
If you are looking for C programs, please click here “C programs”. This C programming basics section explains a simple “Hello World” C program. Also, it covers below basic topics as well, which are to be known by any C programmer before writing a C program.
- C programming basic commands to write a C program
- A simple C program with output and explanation
- Steps to write C programs and get the output
- Creation, Compilation and Execution of a C program
* How to install C compiler and IDE tool to run C programming codes - Basic structure of a C program
* Example C program to compare all the sections
* Description for each section of the C program - C programs ( Click here for more C programs ) with definition and output – C program for Prime number, Factorial, Fibonacci series, Palindrome, Swapping 2 numbers with and without temp variable, sample calculator program and sample bank application program etc.
1. C programming basics to write a C Program:
Below are few commands and syntax used in C programming to write a simple C program. Let’s see all the sections of a simple C program line by line.
C Basic commands | Explanation |
#include <stdio.h> | This is a preprocessor command that includes standard input output header file(stdio.h) from the C library before compiling a C program |
int main() | This is the main function from where execution of any C program begins. |
{ | This indicates the beginning of the main function. |
/*_some_comments_*/ | whatever is given inside the command “/* */” in any C program, won’t be considered for compilation and execution. |
printf(“Hello_World! “); | printf command prints the output onto the screen. |
getch(); | This command waits for any character input from keyboard. |
return 0; |
This command terminates C program (main function) and returns 0.
|
} |
This indicates the end of the main function.
|
2. A simple C Program:
Below C program is a very simple and basic program in C programming language. This C program displays “Hello World!” in the output window. And, all syntax and commands in C programming are case sensitive. Also, each statement should be ended with semicolon (;) which is a statement terminator.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
#include <stdio.h> int main() { /* Our first simple C basic program */ printf("Hello World! "); getch(); return 0; } |
Output:
Hello World!
|
3. Steps to write C programs and get the output:
Below are the steps to be followed for any C program to create and get the output. This is common to all C program and there is no exception whether its a very small C program or very large C program.
- Create
- Compile
- Execute or Run
- Get the Output
4. Creation, Compilation and Execution of a C program:
Prerequisite:
- If you want to create, compile and execute C programs by your own, you have to install C compiler in your machine. Then, you can start to execute your own C programs in your machine.
- You can refer below link for how to install C compiler and compile and execute C programs in your machine.
- Once C compiler is installed in your machine, you can create, compile and execute C programs as shown in below link.
- If you don’t want to install C/C++ compilers in your machine, you can refer online compilers which will compile and execute C/C++ and many other programming languages online and display outputs on the screen. Please search for online C/C++ compilers in Google for more details.
C – Environment Setup Using IDE tool
C – Environment Setup Using GCC compiler
5. Basic structure of a C program:
Structure of C program is defined by set of rules called protocol, to be followed by programmer while writing C program. All C programs are having sections/parts which are mentioned below.
- Documentation section
- Link Section
- Definition Section
- Global declaration section
- Function prototype declaration section
- Main function
- User defined function definition section
Example C program to compare all the sections:
You can compare all the sections of a C program with the below C program.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 |
/* Documentation section C programming basics & structure of C programs Author: fresh2refresh.com Date : 01/01/2012 */ #include <stdio.h> /* Link section */ int total = 0; /* Global declaration, definition section */ int sum (int, int); /* Function declaration section */ int main () /* Main function */ { printf ("This is a C basic program \n"); total = sum (1, 1); printf ("Sum of two numbers : %d \n", total); return 0; } int sum (int a, int b) /* User defined function */ { return a + b; /* definition section */ } |
Output:
This is a C basic program
Sum of two numbers : 2 |
Description for each section of the C program:
- Let us see about each section of a C basic program in detail below.
- Please note that a C program mayn’t have all below mentioned sections except main function and link sections.
- Also, a C program structure mayn’t be in below mentioned order.
Sections | Description |
Documentation section | We can give comments about the program, creation or modified date, author name etc in this section. The characters or words or anything which are given between “/*” and “*/”, won’t be considered by C compiler for compilation process.These will be ignored by C compiler during compilation. Example : /* comment line1 comment line2 comment 3 */ |
Link Section | Header files that are required to execute a C program are included in this section |
Definition Section | In this section, variables are defined and values are set to these variables. |
Global declaration section | Global variables are defined in this section. When a variable is to be used throughout the program, can be defined in this section. |
Function prototype declaration section | Function prototype gives many information about a function like return type, parameter names used inside the function. |
Main function | Every C program is started from main function and this function contains two major sections called declaration section and executable section. |
User defined function section | User can define their own functions in this section which perform particular task as per the user requirement. |
6. Example C programs with definition, example program and output:
If you have enough basic knowledge on C programming language and all concepts, you can refer following C programs.
Please click here “C programs” for referring below programs.
- C program for Prime number
- C program for Factorial
- C program for Fibonacci series
- C program for Palindrome
- C program for Swapping 2 numbers with and without temp variable
- Sample calculator program and bank application program
- etc.
Key points to remember in C programming basics:
- C programming is a case sensitive programming language.
- Each C programming statement is ended with semicolon (;) which are referred as statement terminator.
- printf() command is used to print the output onto the screen.
- C programs are compiled using C compilers and displays output when executed.
Reference C programming E-books & research papers:
- ANSI 89 – American National Standards Institute, American National Standard for Information Systems Programming Language C, 1989.
- Kernighan 78 – B. W. Kernighan and D. M. Ritchie, The C Programming Language, Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1978. Second edition, 1988.
- Thinking 90 – C* Programming Guide, Thinking Machines Corp. Cambridge Mass., 1990.