Variables and
Constants
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 1
C program structure
• Virtually all structured programs, including C
programming share a similar overall
structure:
• Statements to establish the start of the program
e.g. #include directives.
• Variable declarations and constants
• Program control statements (blocks of code) e.g.
Conditional statements (if, if… else, etc.), loops
(for loop, while loop, etc.)
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 2
Statements to establish the
start of the C program
• The #include directives or
preprocessor headers are used to start
C.
• The next to the directives is the main
function, named main().
• From here is where open curly bracket
({) shows the beginning of our
program.
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 3
Variables
• A variable is a location in memory where a
value can be stored for use by a program.
• Example:
• int integer1;
• int integer2;
• int sum;
• These definitions specify that the variables
integer1, integer2 and sum are of type int.
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 4
Variable names
• All variable definitions must include
two things variable name and its data
type.
• To indicate the memory location, each
variable should be given a unique
name called identifier.
• To declare any variable in C language
you need to follow rules of C language.
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 5
Rules for C variable names
1. Only alphabet, digits and underscore can
be used to name a variable.
2. The first character in a variable name
must be an alphabet or underscore (_)
3. No comma or blanks are allowed within a
variable name.
4. No special symbol other than underscore
is allowed in naming a variable.
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 6
Rules for C variable names cont…
5. C keywords like int, float, struct, if,
while, etc. cannot be used as variable
names.
6. Every variable name always should exist
on the left hand side of assignment
operator.
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 7
Variable declaration
• Before we use a variable in C we must
declare it.
• We must identify what kind of
information will be stored in it. This is
called defining a variable.
• Variables must be declared at the start
of any block of code, but most are
found at the start of each function.
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 8
Format specifiers
• C has lots of format specifiers to work
with various data types.
• Format specifier defines the type of
data to be printed on standard output.
• Whether to print formatted output or
to take formatted input we need
format specifiers.
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 9
Format specifiers cont…
Supported data
Format specifier Description
types
char
%c Character
unsigned char
short
unsigned short
%d Signed integer
int
long
%f Floating point float
%lf Floating point double
%s String char *
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 10
Reading input of variable
• Using variables in C for input or output
can be a bit of a hassle at first, but bear
with it and it will make sense.
• We'll be using the scanf function to read
in a value and then printf to read it back
out.
• Let's look at the program on next slide
and then pick apart exactly what's going
on.
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 11
Reading input variable cont…
/*the program obtains, calculates and
prints the sum of two numbers*/
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int _number1, number2, sum;
//prompt the user for first number
printf("Enter the first number\n");
//store the value of first number
scanf("%d",&_number1);
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 12
Reading input variable cont…
//prompt the user for second number
printf("Enter the second number\
n"); //store the value of second number
scanf("%d",&number2);
//calculate the sum of the two numbers
sum=_number1+number2;
printf("The sum of two numbers is %d\
n",sum);
return 0;
}
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 13
Reading input variable cont…
• "%d" – represents the format specifier
for integer value.
• It tells the scanf function to read in an
integer
• & – is an address operator for storing
value that user inputs.
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 14
Thank you for listening!
© G.Y. Namani Variables & Constants Slide 15
