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Chapter 2: Computer Program Basics

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Chapter 2: Computer Program Basics

 Basic Program Structure

 Keywords
 Variables
 Rules for variable names
 Constant
 Types of constant
 Data types
 Operators
 Statement
 Expression
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Basic Structure of C Program

 The structure of C Program is divided into six (6) parts.

 In which some parts mandatory and some are optional.
 Documentation Section
 Link Section
 Definition Section
 Global Declaration Section
 main() function Section
 Subprogram Section
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Document Section

 This section is not compulsory section but for good programming

this part should be include.
 This is suggested section
 Helps anyone to get an overview of the program.
 This section consists of comment lines like
 The name of the program
 The name of the programmer
 The author
 Date of writing the program
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Comments

 Two different methods to comment in C

 Single line comment start from //
 While Multi line comment starts with /* and end with */
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Link Section

 This section includes the header files whose functions are to be

used in the program.
 This is mandatory section
 Header file contain the set of predefined standard library
functions
 Stdio.h Input/output functions
 Math.h mathematical functions
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Definition Section

 All the symbolic constants are written in the definition section.

 Symbolic constants are known as Macros
 #define directive is used to define macros.
 Example #define PI 3.14
 This is an optional section
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Global Declaration Section

 This is an optional section

 All global variables are written in this section.
 The global variables can be used anywhere in the program.
 This section also declares the user defined functions.
 Syntax
 datatype variable name;
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main() function

 Every program must contain main function from where the

execution of program starts.
 This is mandatory section.
 From main function other user defined functions are called when
required.
 main function have two parts
 Declaration part
 Executable part
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Subprogram Section

 This section contain user defined functions which are called by

main function when required.
 This is an optional section
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Keywords

 The words that are used by the language for special purposes
are called keywords. These are also called reserved words.
 The keywords cannot be used as variable names in a program.
 For example, in a C++ program the word main is used to
indicate the starting of program.
 Other examples of keywords are int, float, if, for, while
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Variables

 A variable represents a storage or memory location in the

computer memory which holds some value.
 The name of the variable remains fixed during execution of the
program but the value stored in that location may change from
time to time.
 Each variable has name to represent the storage the location.
 In C++, a variable name consists of alphabets and digits.
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Rules for writing variables name

 The first character of variable name must be an alphabetic character.

 Underscore can be used as first character of a variable name.
 Blank spaces are not allowed in a variable name.
 Special characters such as arithmetic operators , #, & cannot be
used in a variable name.
 Reserved words cannot be used as variable name
 The maximum length of a variable name depends upon the compiler
of C++.
 A variable name for one data type cannot be used to declare another
data type.
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Constant

 Constant is an identifier whose value can not be change

throughout the execution of program.
 Example 12, -12, 12.4, ‘A’, “ABC”
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Types of Constant

 Types of constant include:

 Integer Constant
 Example 10,45,0.-10, -24
 Floating Point Constant
 Example 12.5, 16.456
 Character Constant
 Example ‘A’, ‘V’
 String Constant
 Example “ABCD”, “A”
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Data Types

 The data type specifies the type of data and set of operations
that can be applied on the data.
 Every data type has a range of values
 Requires different amount of memory.
 Compiler allocates memory space for each variable according to its
data type.
 Standard data type: A data type that is predefined in the language is
called standard data type.
 Examples int, float, long, double and char
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Integer Data Type

 Integer data is the numeric value with no decimal point or

fraction.
 May have positive or negative values
 Examples 10, -250, 30
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Types of integer data type

 the larger the size a data type is, the greater the range of values it
can hold.

 Short int: The storage capacity of short int type is two bytes. It can
store integer values from -32768 to 32767

 Long int: Their storage capacity is four bytes their storage range is
from -2147483648 to 2147483647

 Unsigned int: unsigned can only store positive values from 0 to

65535. their storage size two bytes.
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Float data type

 The float type variable store decimal or floating point data.

 23.45,16.26, -9.6
 Their storage capacity is four bytes and it can store value from 3.4xx
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Double data type

 The double is real or floating type data. Its storage capacity is twice
the capacity of float data type. It is used to store large real values.
 The storage capacity for double type variable is 8 bytes and it can
store value from 1.7xx
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Char data type

 The char stands for character. It is used to declare character type

variables.
 In character type variables, alphabetic characters, numeric digits
and special characters can be stored.
 Example ‘A’, ‘12’, ‘@’
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Bool data type

 The word bool stands for Boolean. It is used to declare logical type
variables.
 In a logical type variable, only two values true or false can be stored.
 The true is equivalent to 1 and false to 0.
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Operators

 Operators are the symbols that are used to performed operations on

data.
 C/C++ provides the following types of operators
 Arithmetic operators +, -, /, *, %
>, <, ==, >=,
 Relational operators
<=, !=
 Logical operators &&, ||, !
 Assignment operators =
 Increment and decrement operators ++, - -
 Compound Assignment operators +=, -=, /=, *=
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Statement

 A computer program statement is an instruction for the program to

perform an action.
 There are many different types statements that can be given in a
computer program in order to direct the actions the program
performs.
 Each statement in C++ ends with a semicolon (;).
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Expression

A statement that evaluate to a value is called an expression.

 Given a single value
 Consists of operator and operand
 An operator is a symbol that performs some operations on
operands
 Operand is the value on which the operator performs some
operation.
Can be a constant, variable or combination of both.
Examples A+B; m/n; x+100;