Introduction
C programming language was developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at bell
laboratories of AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph), located in the U.S.A.
Dennis Ritchie is known as the founder of the c language.
It was developed to overcome the problems of previous languages such as B, BCPL,
etc.
Initially, C language was developed to be used in UNIX operating system. It inherits
many features of previous languages such as B and BCPL.
programming languages that were developed before C language.
Language Year Developed By
Algol 1960 International Group
BCPL 1967 Martin Richard
B 1970 Ken Thompson
Traditional C 1972 Dennis Ritchie
K&RC 1978 Kernighan & Dennis Ritchie
ANSI C 1989 ANSI Committee
ANSI/ISO C 1990 ISO Committee
C99 1999 Standardization Committee
Features of C Language
C is the widely used language. It provides many features that are given below.
1. Simple
2. Machine Independent or Portable
3. Mid-level programming language
4. structured programming language
5. Rich Library
6. Memory Management
7. Fast Speed
8. Pointers
9. Recursion
10. Extensible
1) Simple
C is a simple language in the sense that it provides a structured approach (to break
the problem into parts), the rich set of library functions, data types, etc.
2) Machine Independent or Portable
Unlike assembly language, c programs can be executed on different machines with
some machine specific changes. Therefore, C is a machine independent language.
3) Mid-level programming language
Although, C is intended to do low-level programming. It is used to develop system
applications such as kernel, driver, etc. It also supports the features of a high-level
language. That is why it is known as mid-level language.
4) Structured programming language
C is a structured programming language in the sense that we can break the program
into parts using functions. So, it is easy to understand and modify. Functions also
provide code reusability.
5) Rich Library
C provides a lot of inbuilt functions that make the development fast.
6) Memory Management
It supports the feature of dynamic memory allocation. In C language, we can free
the allocated memory at any time by calling the free() function.
7) Speed
The compilation and execution time of C language is fast since there are lesser inbuilt
functions and hence the lesser overhead.
8) Pointer
C provides the feature of pointers. We can directly interact with the memory by using
the pointers. We can use pointers for memory, structures, functions, array, etc.
9) Recursion
In C, we can call the function within the function. It provides code reusability for
every function. Recursion enables us to use the approach of backtracking.
10) Extensible
C language is extensible because it can easily adopt new features.
C Keywords and Identifiers
reserved words in C programming that are part of the syntax. Also, we will learn
about identifiers and how to name them.
Character set
A character set is a set of alphabets, letters and some special characters that are valid
in C language.
Alphabets
Uppercase: A B C ................................... X Y Z
Lowercase: a b c ...................................... x y z
C accepts both lowercase and uppercase alphabets as variables and functions.
Digits
0123456789
Special Characters
Special Characters in C Programming
, < > . _
( ) ; $ :
% [ ] # ?
' & { } "
^ ! * / |
- \ ~ +
White space Characters
Blank space, newline, horizontal tab, carriage return and form feed.
New Lines
The newline character (\n) is called an escape sequence, and it forces the
cursor to change its position to the beginning of the next line on the screen. This
results in a new line. To insert a new line, you can use the \n character:
Horizontal tab
The horizontal tab character (\t) is also an escape sequences and it forces the cursor to
give horizontal margin.
Carriage return means to return to the beginning of the current line without
advancing downward. This is commonly escaped as \r, abbreviated CR, and has
ASCII value 13
Form feed means advance downward to the next "page". It was commonly used as
page separators, but now is also used as section separators. (It's uncommonly used in
source code to divide logically independent functions or groups of functions.) Text
editors can use this character when you "insert a page break". This is commonly
escaped as \f, abbreviated FF, and has ASCII value 12
C Keywords
Keywords are predefined, reserved words used in programming that have special
meanings to the compiler. Keywords are part of the syntax and they cannot be used as
an identifier.
For example:
int money;
Here, int is a keyword that indicates money is a variable of type int (integer).
As C is a case sensitive language, all keywords must be written in lowercase.
Here is a list of all keywords allowed in ANSI C.
C Keywords
auto double int struct
break else long switch
case enum register typedef
char extern return union
continue for signed void
do if static while
default goto sizeof volatile
const float short unsigned
All these keywords, their syntax, and application will be discussed in their respective
topics.
C Identifiers
Identifier refers to name given to entities such as variables, functions, structures etc.
Identifiers must be unique. They are created to give a unique name to an entity to
identify it during the execution of the program.
For example:
int money;
double accountBalance;
Here, money and accountBalance are identifiers.
Also remember, identifier names must be different from keywords. You cannot
use int as an identifier because int is a keyword.
Rules for naming identifiers
1. A valid identifier can have letters (both uppercase and lowercase letters), digits
and underscores.
2. The first letter of an identifier should be either a letter or an underscore.
3. You cannot use keywords like int, while etc. as identifiers.
4. There is no rule on how long an identifier can be. However, you may run into
problems in some compilers if the identifier is longer than 31 characters.
5. You can choose any name as an identifier if you follow the above rule, however,
give meaningful names to identifiers that make sense.
