C Programming Basics
ICT 012
• Instructor: Mr. Katwale, S
• Moshi Co-operative University (MoCU)
C - Basic Syntax
Tokens in C
• A C program consists of various tokens and a token is either
a keyword, an identifier, a constant, a string literal, or a
symbol.
• For example, the following C statement consists of five
tokens −
• The individual tokens are −
C - Basic Syntax
Semicolons (;)
• In a C program, the semicolon is a statement
terminator. That is, each individual statement must
be ended with a semicolon.
• It indicates the end of one logical entity.
• Given below are two different statements −
C - Basic Syntax
Comments
• Comments are like helping text in your C program and they are
ignored by the compiler.
• They start with /* and terminate with the characters */ as shown
below −
/* my first program in C */
• You cannot have comments within comments and they do not
occur within a string or character literals.
C - Basic Syntax
Identifiers
• A C identifier is a name used to identify a variable, function,
or any other user-defined item.
• An identifier starts with a letter A to Z, a to z, or an
underscore '_' followed by zero or more letters, underscores,
and digits (0 to 9).
C - Basic Syntax
Identifiers
• C does not allow punctuation characters such as @, $, and %
within identifiers.
• C is a case-sensitive programming language. Thus, Manpower
and manpower are two different identifiers in C.
• Here are some examples of acceptable identifiers −
C - Basic Syntax
Keywords
• Keywords in C programming are reserved words that have a specific
meaning and cannot be used as identifiers (names) for variables,
functions, or any other user-defined entities.
C - Basic Syntax
Whitespace in C
• A line containing only whitespace, possibly with a comment, is known
as a blank line, and a C compiler totally ignores it.
• Whitespace is the term used in C to describe blanks, tabs, newline
characters and comments.
• Whitespace separates one part of a statement from another and
enables the compiler to identify where one element in a statement,
such as int, ends and the next element begins.
C - Basic Syntax
Whitespace in C
• Therefore, in the following statement −
• There must be at least one whitespace character (usually a space) between int
and age for the compiler to be able to distinguish them. On the other hand, in
the following statement −
• No whitespace characters are necessary between fruit and =, or between = and
apples, although you are free to include some if you wish to increase readability.
C - Data Types
• Data types in c refer to an extensive system used for declaring
variables or functions of different types.
• The type of a variable determines how much space it occupies in
storage and how the bit pattern stored is interpreted.
• The types in C can be classified as follows −
C - Data
Types
C - Data Types
Integer Types:
• int: Standard integer type, usually 32 bits on most systems.
• short: Short integer type, usually 16 bits.
• long: Long integer type, usually 32 bits.
• long long: Extended long integer type, introduced in C99, often 64
bits.
C - Data Types
Floating-Point Types:
• float: Single-precision floating-point type.
• double: Double-precision floating-point type.
• long double: Extended double-precision floating-point type.
C - Data Types
The void Type
• The void type specifies that no value is available.
• void: Represents the absence of a type.
• It is used in following situations
C - Data Types
1. Function returns as void
• There are various functions in C which do not return any value or you can say
they return void. A function with no return value has the return type as void.
• For example, void exit (int status);
2. Function arguments as void
• There are various functions in C which do not accept any parameter.
• A function with no parameter can accept a void. For example, int rand(void);
C - Data Types
Character Types:
• char: Represents a single character.
Derived Types:
• Array: A collection of elements of the same data type.
C - Data Types
Character Types:
• char: Represents a single character.
Derived Types:
• Array: A collection of elements of the same data type.
C - Data Types
String Types:
• In C, there is no built-in data type called "String" like in some other
programming languages (e.g., Java or Python).
• However, strings in C are represented as arrays of characters.
Character Arrays:
• Strings are represented as arrays of characters.
• For Example
C - Data Types
String Types:
• In C, there is no built-in data type called "String" like in some other
programming languages (e.g., Java or Python).
• However, strings in C are represented as arrays of characters.
Character Arrays:
In this example, greeting is an
• Strings are represented as arrays of characters. array of characters containing the
characters of the string "Hello,
• For Example World!".
C - Data Types
String Input and Output:
The standard input/output functions (printf() and scanf()) can be used
for input and output of strings respectively.
C - Data Types
• Example
Output
C - Data Types
Basic Format Specifiers
• There are different format specifiers for each data type. Here are some
of them:
C - Data Types
• Constants
• When you don't want others (or yourself) to override existing variable
values, use the const keyword (this will declare the variable as
"constant", which means unchangeable and read-only):
C - Data Types
Constants
Example 1
Output
C - Data Types
Constants
Example 2
Output
Note:
• When you declare a constant variable, it must be assigned with a value.
