C

Okay, so now we are starting with my favorite programming language, C. C is

undoubtedly the most popular programming language in this world. It is a
relatively low-level, imperative programming language which is very efficient and
is widely used. The fact that most modern operating system kernels are written in
C makes it super cool.
Lets have a proper Wikipedia style definition of C:
C is a general-purpose, imperative computer programming language.
Lets analyze this definition:
1. General-purpose: Because it can be used to do a variety of task that
programmer wants. It is not created for only one purpose. For example,
suppose we have a maid in our house for washing clothes. Then she only
washes clothes, she does not wash utensils or cleans the floor because we
do not pay her for that. Her special-purpose is washing clothes. Then she
is not general-purpose. If we hire a maid and say that she will be paid for
all things she would do, then she would wash clothes, utensils, clean the
house without any tantrum. Then she will be a general-purpose maid,
because the purpose of hiring her is not clearly stated.
2. Imperative: Imperative programming languages are those that define the
task to be stated in terms of statements. These statements change the
program state and describe how the program works.

Levels of programming languages

Let us see one more important term now. We earlier stated that C is relatively
low-level. So what exactly are these levels? Lets look at that.
Consider a hierarchy system, in which programmers are on top and machines are
on the bottom.
Human Programmers

High-level programming language

Middle level programming language

Machine

Low-level programming language

Now, any language which humans can easily understand, i.e., it has many English
words and is easy for us to understand but difficult for machine (thats why we
need compilers) is called a High level programming language. For example,
python.
Any language which a machine can easily understand is a low-level language.
Now, we know that machines are dumb, they only understand voltage signals. So
we code a low-voltage as zero and high voltage as one (or vice-versa) and thus
machine can understand binary. Now with microprocessors, machines can also
understand a specific set of instructions that microprocessor understands. This
code is called assembly. As machine can easily understand it but humans cant,
they are low-level.
Now if we make a compromise. If we take a language which is difficult for normal
humans to understand, i.e., you have to know how to understand the language. It
will not be very close to English. So now, we can make a small compiler and it will
be easy to convert this to assembly or binary code. Thus both humans and
machines have made some compromise. So language is not easy for both. Thus, it
is a middle level language. C++ is a middle level language.
C is relatively low-level, i.e., it is somewhere between middle level and low level.

Compilers and Interpreters

By now you must be thinking, what is a compiler exactly? Lets get to it.
Consider you have to talk to a Japanese person. You dont know Japanese and he
doesnt know either English or Hindi. So you both cannot understand each other.
You would need a translator who knows both Japanese and English or Hindi to let
you both know what the other person said. Similarly, we dont know machine
language and computer doesnt know the programming language we are writing
in. So as in above case, we need someone to translate the instructions so that
computer can understand it and then translate computer output so that we can
understand it. This translator is compiler. It takes the code, checks if it makes
sense, and translates it to object code which computer can understand.
Now the translator person can be of two types:
1. He can listen to your one sentence; translate it to the Japanese person.
Then listen to other sentence, and again translate it. Whenever he doesnt

understand what you said, he will stop translating and ask you to correct
what you said.
2. He can listen to you say one full paragraph, translate it completely in
Japanese and then ask you to correct wherever you made mistakes.
Again comparing the translator to compilers, we see that a compiler can either
convert the code line by line, stop wherever a mistake is seen, asking you to
correct it; or it can translate the whole code at once and give the lines wherever
mistakes are there. The first type is called interpreter and second is called
compiler. Interpreters are good at pointing out the mistakes but are usually
slower than compilers. Java is one language which is both compiled and
interpreted.

C program
Lets analyze a basic C program. It will take two numbers from user and add them.
Then it will print the result.
1.
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#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
int main()
{
int a;
int b;
int c;
printf(Enter the value for a: );
scanf(%d, &a);
printf(Enter the value for b: );
scanf(%d, &b);
c = a + b;
printf(Sum of a and b is: %d, c);
getch();
return 0;
}

Now let us analyze the code line by line.

Line 1 includes a header file called stdio.h and line 2 conio.h. What are these
header files anyway? Well they are our way of being lazy :D. There are some basic
functions which we all will most probably be performing in our program, for
example, printing an output. It would be too tiring to have to write the code again
and again for how to print an output. Thus most compilers wrote functions and
wrote them in a file. Now whenever we include that file, the definition of that
function gets included in our code, so we can easily perform it without having to
write the whole code.
The include statement has a # (called hash or pound) before it. It indicates the
compiler that this line has to be translated before compiling the rest of the
program, because otherwise, the definition of that function will not be present
during compiling. Any instruction of this type, with a # in front of it, is called a
pre-processor directive. Pre-processor, because it is executed before processing
of the program and directive is a synonym for instruction.
File name is written in angle brackets. there is a space between include and angle
bracket. There is no space between # and include, nor between angle brackets
and file name. There are many include files available in a standard compiler, like
stdio.h, conio.h, math.h, etc.
There are many other pre-processor directives like #define, #ifdef, but well deal
with that later. Also, we can make our own header files for our personal
functions. That also will come later.
One important point, conio.h is a dos header. This means that it is needed for only
those programs that are executed in Windows environment. When well code on
Linux command line later on, i.e., our Ubuntu virtual machine, we will not include
it. Nor will we write getch() in the end.
Now we come to main(). As the name clearly suggests, it is the main part of the
program where all execution takes place. It is the main function of a program and
it automatically gets called whenever we execute a program. We will deal with
functions later. So for now just keep this in mind that a program has a main. It will
be clear later.
Now notice the int written before main(). It is one of the basic data types of C.
They are:
1. int

2.
3.
4.
5.

float
char
void
double

A data type is actually a definition of what kind of value is being talked about. It
defines a range of values and anywhere we use these terms, we indicate the
complier that the value will be in this range.
int is used to store integer type data, i.e., positive or negative integers (numbers
without the decimal sign). The size normally depends on the machine being used
but it is generally 2 bytes. It normally holds values of the range -32768 to 32767. If
we add the word unsigned before it, then it holds all positive numbers only. So
the range becomes 0 to 64535.
float is used for storing floating point numbers, i.e., numbers with decimal part or
even exponents of 10, for example 2X105. It stores numbers in normal decimal
form, 0.00002 or stores it as 2E5, where e can be small or capital and stands for
exponent. The number before the power of 10 part is called mantissa. It can
generally store numbers from -2147483647 to 2147483647, but it usually
depends on machine. Normally needs 4 bytes.
char is a data type for character values. There are about 256 characters and so
char normally has values 0 to 255, with each value assigned a character. It is
internally treated as an integer, so even arithmetic can be performed on it.
Normally it needs 1 byte. The following range should always be remembered:
1. 97-122: small letters a-z
2. 65-90: capital letters A-Z
3. 48-57: digits 0-9
void is a nothing data type. When we want to deal with situations where nothing
is there to give or take, we use void. It will be clear when we use functions.
double is like a big brother to float. It has double precision, i.e., more digits can be
there after decimal point. It is hell big.

We have special optional specifiers in C, which modify the range of int, char and
double (only long) (except void of course :P). They are:
signed: specifies that the value can have a plus minus sign.
unsigned: restricts to only positive values.
short: can be used to shorten the capacity to save memory
long: can be used to extend the range by taking up more memory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_data_types: Read the table on this page, it will be
clear.
Coming back to the code, for now assume that a function has a data type written
before it, which is called return type, which specifies the value it returns. It can be
any data type, including the complicated ones we will discuss later. The fact will
be clear when functions will be done. There will be no space between main and ().
Now we have written int a, int b, int c. These are called variables, because they
are able to vary, i.e., we can change their values during the program run. a can be
in one case 5, in the other case 8. It all depends on user input. It is not fixed so it is
a vary-able :D.
When we say int a; we are declaring that we will be using a variable called a. So it
is called variable declaration. If we say int a=5; then we are giving an initial value
to a. So this is called variable initialization. This can also be done by declaring a in
one line and initializing it in the other, like int a; a = 5;
Variables are actually empty boxes whom we have given names. They refer to a
memory location and so a does not have an existence of its own. Its just a name
we have given to a memory location in the computer. We may give it another
name if we dont like the first one. But yes, we cannot give same name to two
boxes. It would be confusing which one is referred to.
Just like we can store anything in a box if it fits in it, we can store any value in a
variable if it fits the data type. Thus, data type describes the capacity of our box.
Another interesting thing. We know that char is smaller than int. So if we can
place a big object in a box, I can obviously place the smaller one as well. Thus we
can place a char value in an int variable; an int value in a float variable and so on.

But, what if we try to place the bigger value in smaller variable? Well, C is like a
short-tempered strong man, who would just push the object in the box even if it
breaks. So if we try to put a float in an int, it removes the decimal part forcefully
and places it. This is called implicit type conversion, as data type is being
converted and implicit as it is done without programmer asking the code to do so.
We can also tell the compiler to do this explicitly if the need arises. We can simply
write the needed data type in brackets before the variable in assignment
statement, for example int a = (int)b; where b is a float variable. This process is
called type casting. Type casting will not have a space between casting operator ()
and variable name.
Notice line 5. We gave a curly bracket there and even in the end of the code.
These two brackets specify what we call body of a function. All statements are
written between these brackets. These are also the scope of the variable declared
in them. Any variable declared within { } cannot be used outside its own { }.
We have a getch() statement. getch stands for get character. Because Windows
immediately exists after completing execution, we may not be able to see the
output. So we give a getch() call, which waits until we press any key on the
keyboard. So we get time to see the output. It is not needed in Linux. Its definition
is in conio.h.
We also have a return 0 statement. It returns a value 0 to the call of main, i.e., the
operating system that the execution was successful. It will be clear when
functions is discussed.
We also have the statement c = a + b; It adds the two numbers a and b and store
their result in c. There should be space between all variables and operators.
Operators will be discussed in next lecture Im tired now. Just remember, always,
the value on right hand side goes to the variable in left hand side of =.
Now the only remaining statements are the printf and scanf functions. Always
remember, anything with () is a function. There is no space between printf and ().
printf is short for printing function. It is used to print an output or a message to
the screen. Strings are written in . Any variable which has to be printed has to

be specified by giving the short form of its type to identify the type of value to
print. They are %d for int, %f for float, %c for char.
scanf stands for scanning function. It is used to scan the values inputted by the
user on the console. It only specifies the type of value to be taken in the string by
%d, %f etc. Then it gives a reference to that variable. Explaining references will
take time, so in next lecture. Remember always, you cannot give a statement to
print in scanf. Never ever do that.
So, it is wrong to write scanf(enter number:%d, &a);
It is a blunder. You cannot give a string to scanf, it only scans. So only thing in
should be %d stuff.
Well thats it for this lecture. Next time we will get in details of printf, scanf, deal
with variable scope, come to operators, explain constants and then hopefully
start with if else.
In case of any statement which is not clear, please copy it to a word file and write
your doubts in it as well. Please make sure there is line space between two
doubts. They will be covered in next lecture.
There is a question paper attached along with the lecture. It is expected that you
will solve all those questions and write appropriate codes for them.
Thank you for reading