C programming is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in 1972 by Dennis M. Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories to develop the UNIX operating system. C is the most widely used computer language. It keeps fluctuating at the number one scale of popularity along with the Java programming language, which is also equally popular and most widely used among modern software programmers.

You need to know nothing much before starting learning C. Basic knowledge about logic building skills, and mathematics are enough to start learning it.

There are a fixed structure and syntax for writing a program in any language, and writing it in any other form will give a compilation error. It means that we have a fixed structure for writing a C program as well.

                      Header    -   #include <stdio.h>

                          Main     -   int main ()

                                           {

                          Body    -   print ( "%d", a);

                        Return   -   return 0;

The c programming language is a very simple language generally used by programmers worldwide. Originally, this language was applied for system development work, in precise, the programs that make up the operating system. The advantage of the C programming language is that it generates code that works almost as fast as code written in assembly language. The uses of C programming can be summarized as follows:

The c programming language is originally practiced for system programming. The portability, performance, capacity to reach particular hardware addresses, and low runtime command on system addresses make it a good choice for executing operating systems and embedded system applications.

It is universally accepted by compilers. Libraries and interpreters of other languages are often performed in C programming.

There are various uses of c programming in electrical engineering also. It can use signal processing algorithms to know the features of microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other integrated circuit projects.

C programming is sometimes utilized as an intermediary language for implementations of different languages because of portability and comfort reasons. Examples of compilers that use C language in this process are Gambit, BitC, the Glasgow Haskell Compiler, Vala, and Squeak.

There are many uses of c programming in mechanical engineering. Different CAM and CAD software are to be controlled by engineers. Almost every project is created with CAD and CAM software has a vital role in the production processes.

C programming is extensively utilized to implement end-user applications.

Being a middle-level language, C connects the features of both low-level and high-level languages. C language can be utilized for low-level programmings, such as scripting for kernels and drivers. It also helps the use of high-level programming languages, such as scripting for the application of software, etc.

The c programming language is a structured language that provides a complicated program to be separated into more simplistic programs described as functions. It also enables data-free movement over these functions.

C programming languages have different features, that includes access to machine-level hardware APIs, the behavior of compilers of C, and dynamic memory allocation that make the C language an excellent option for scripting applications and drivers of installed systems.

This programming is case-sensitive, which means uppercase and lowercase letters are used separately.

Uses of c programming are for scripting system applications, which form a significant part of Windows, Linux, UNIX operating systems.

C language is a general-purpose language and can efficiently work on project applications, graphics, games, and applications needing calculations.

It has a powerful library that provides several built-in functions. It also gives dynamic memory allocation.

Whether you are new to programming, you should learn it because of the following reasons:

It is around 50 years old and is still very popular.

It builds a strong foundation of programming. Because it has its compiler, the program written in it runs on the C compiler only. So, it will not only teach you programming or coding, but it will also let you understand how a program runs on the computer.

It will make you a hardcore programmer as it has lesser libraries. So, you will end up writing your code.

Some companies work on embedded programming, system programming compiler designing, etc., looking for good C professionals and giving a good career growth. This technology will not die and will always provide a good career opportunity.

C is considered as the base of other programming languages. This technology doesn’t seem to have an expiry date. Its specialty to provide interaction with the hardware makes it unique. Its portability and efficiency make it a good choice for complex data manipulation and the development of embedded systems and operating systems kernels. Many other programming languages are also in demand, but they can’t beat it, which is still preferred when performance becomes the priority.

In this blog, you'll get to know a vast description of C Language.

Overview of C Language

Let’s learn this conception of compilers with an illustration. Suppose you have been to a place where the languages you speak are fully different from each other and now you had some traveling issues and want to communicate the same with them. How? Did you need a translator right? You conclude to have someone who can understand your language and restate and let the contrary person understand what you wanted to say. In the same way, we'd be writing our C law in a high-position language that's a mortal-accessible format. How would the program understand what we've asked it to do? This is where the compiler comes into the picture. A compiler transforms and translates a high-end language to machine ( low position) accessible language. The collecting process does introductory restatement mechanisms and also error discovery. The frontal end compendium includes verbal, syntax, and semantic analysis. And at the aft end, the compendium does the law generation and optimization. So there are numerous compilers in C like BDS, Clang, GCC, Interactive C, Chassis, Movable C Compiler, Visual Express, etc. Let’s get to know further about many of them. 

Turbo C is one of the basic and popular compilers for the C programming language. This was first introduced in 1987; it was popular for its small size, compilation speed, and low price. Once Turbo C++ got released in 1990, both the compilers are merged and the name Turbo C got discontinued. In 2006, Embarcadero Technologies had re-released Turbo C as freeware.

The Tiny C Compiler is designed to work on slow computers with little disk space. This is an ARM processor C compiler. This compiler started its support to Windows in 2005. Some of its features are mentioned below.

Its file size is small according to the owner of this compiler (Fabrice Bellard). The fastness of this compiler is around nine times faster than GCC. The compilation, assembling, and linking of code were the main attributes considered for measuring the fastness of this compiler.

This compiler had included many compiler-specific features to boost up the optional memory, bound checker, and had greater code stability.

This compiler allows automatic execution of programs during the compile-time only using command line arguments. This way, programs are executed under UNIX, using shell scripts. The latest version was released in December 2017.

The Portable C Compiler (PCC) was a very early used and established compiler for the C programming language that is almost around mid-1970. This compiler had a long life span. This was prevalent during a period in such a way that many of the C compilers were based on it. The advantages of PCC depended on its capabilities and probability predictions. PCC compiler was made such that source files were machine-dependent, not all but only a few of them. It can detect syntax errors and can perform perfect validity checks. A new version of PCC was released on 10 December 2014.

GNU Compiler Collection is the compiler produced by the GNU Project. This supports many programming languages and it is a free software foundation under the General Public License. This compiler was first released in 1987 and it supported only C- Programming language during the start. Slowly it expanded to C++, Java, Android, and IOS. Here, each of the different language compilers has its program that reads the code written and sends the machine code as the output. All of these have a common internal structure. When a high-level language is written, as per the language it is written, the compiler parses the code in that language and produces an abstract syntax tree. GCC uses LALR parsers, but slowly switched to recursive-descent parsers for C in 2006. Coming to the optimization part, as already known this can occur during any phase of the compilation. However, here the bulk optimizations are performed before the code generation and after the syntax, semantic analysis. Below are a few of the optimizations performed by GCC.

It can eliminate the redundancy at the code level.

Replacement of Aggregates concerning the scalar level.

In GCC back end is specified by preprocessor macros and functions specific to a particular architecture. This code is generally built by first calling a small snippet code that is associated with each pattern and generating instructions from the instruction set. It is done using registers, offsets, and addresses that are chosen during the re-load phase.

Clang; including C, is also a compiler for C++, Objective-C, and objective-C++ programming languages. This compiler uses LLVM for the back-end code-related compilations. This compiler has been designed to act as a replacement for the GCC by supporting many of its compilation flags and language extensions.

Clang has many contributors including Apple, Microsoft, Google, Sony, and Intel. It is open-source software. LLVM was first used by GCC for the front-end compilation, but GCC had caused some problems for developers at Apple, as the source code is large and difficult to use. So, they had come up with Clang.

One of the major goals for Clang is to provide library-based architecture. It is designed to keep more information during the compilation process than GCC. This also helps to preserve the overall shape of the original code.

The error report generated by Clang during compilation is always detailed and specific in a machine-readable format. Clang had always aimed to reduce the over usage of memory space and increase the compilation speed as compared with GCC, and due to these qualities, it had become one of the fastest-growing used compilers during a point in time. But over a period the performance of Clang started to come down. The reports told the performance had lagged with almost large differences as compared with GCC and started to have slower performance. The most recent comparisons indicate that both the compilers had come up and increased their performance and once again created great competition between them. Yet, GCC remains to top the list.

Though there are numerous compilers available for C, GCC stands out to be one of the stylish as of now. The winner protestation then lies grounded on continuity, optimization, speed, and law/ error/ syntax checks. Through this, we can easily understand that the Compiler is an important pillar to the programming languages. Without their work whatever program we write would just be a scrap for the system.

In this blog, you can know what are the best 5 compilers available in C.

Top 5 Compilers  Of C

Applications require different types of data to store information. For example, the name is an array of characters, but age is better stored as an integer. We can perform many operations (sum, average, concatenation, matching, etc.) if the data is stored in the correct format and with the correct types. That is why we have so many data types in C so that we can differentiate and segregate data in the best possible way.

Whenever a variable is defined in C, it has to be associated with a certain data type.

This indicates the amount of memory to be allocated to that variable, and each variable will hold its unique memory location, except for some cases where the variables point to the same memory location only

A) The primary data types are also called primitive data types, and they include the following :

B) The derived data types can be among the following :

Let's discuss the examples of the data types:

If you have to store the whole numbers, then int can be used as a data type, it can have a range of numbers based upon the size you choose in memory, and it can have either all positive or from negative to positive range of numbers based upon user choice of code design.

int or signed int ( size - 2 bytes | | range allowed -32,768 to 32767 )

unsigned int ( size - 2 | | range allowed 0 to 65535 )

short int or signed short int ( size - 1 | | ranged allowed -128 to 127 )

unsigned short int (size - 1 | | ranged allowed - 0 to 255 )

long int or signed long int ( size -	4 | | ranged allowed -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647 )

unsigned long int ( size - 4 | | range allowed - 0 to 4,294,967,295 )

Any real number can be stored in the float data type, and here also we can specify the range; based on data type and size selection, a range of numbers is allowed.

Float (size - 4 | | ranged allowed - 3.4E-38 to 3.4E+38 )

double (size - 8 | | ranged allowed - 1.7E-308 to 1.7E+308 )

long double (size - 10 | |	ranged allowed - 3.4E-4932 to 1.1E+4932 )

printf("max float value allowed in positive range   :   %g\n", (float) FLT_MAX);

printf("max float value allowed in negative range   :   %g\n", (float) -FLT_MAX);

printf("max double value possible in positive range :   %g\n", (double) DBL_MAX);

printf("max double value possible in negative range :  %g\n", (double) -DBL_MAX);

This represents the character data type, and it can be either signed or unsigned with a constant size of 1 byte for both cases.

char or signed char ( size - 1 | | ranged allowed	-128 to 127 )

unsigned char( size - 1 | | ranged allowed - 0 to 255 )

char f = 65; // represents ASCII char value, refer to ASCII table

If you don’t want to assign any type to a function (i.e. it won’t return anything like you saw the main function prefixed with void type in the above snippets), then you can mark it as void type.

The above snippets can be referred to as examples for the same.

When any homogenous set of data has to be stored in contiguous memory locations, then this data type is chosen, the use case is that there may be times when your code would return more than one result, and that has to be returned from functions cumulatively, like if we have to find a list of all months in a year, then they will be 12, hence we can’t place 12 months discretely in a single variable, so we use arrays for the same.

Let’s see a simple snippet to understand the declaration and use of arrays.

In this blog, we'll know what kind of data types are in C.

Data Types In C

In the C language ternary driver is allowing for executing or running any law grounded on the given value to the condition, and the condition result value of the expression returned to the affair. The important use of a ternary driver decreases the number of lines of law and increases the performance of the operation. Utmost of the exploration papers claimed that the expression result is faster than a statement result (conventional if-additional condition). Ternary driver contains 3 expressions; Expression1, Expression2, and Expression3. Expression1 holds the condition to check, Expression2 will hold true value estimated by Expression1 condition, and Expression3 will hold the false value estimated by Expression1 condition.

Working of a ternary operator in C language:

C language ternary operator works based on the ternary operator(?), If the condition is evaluated true then it executes the true expression value at the left-hand side of the colon(:) symbol and if the condition is evaluated false then it executes false expression value at the right-hand side of the colon(:) symbol.

What is the return value of the ternary expression?

Boolean result= Condition?true value:false value; it returns the Boolean value(true/false).

See the below images for a better understanding of ternary operator:-

#include<stdio.h>//informing to c language include c ibrary files

scanf("%d %d", &first , &second);//%d is integer values

printf("%d",first);//printing the larger output

printf(" is larger number than %d",second);

printf(" is larger number than %d",first);

The largest number from 2 numbers with the ternary operator

printf("Please provide 2 numbers=>\n");//lin4

largest = (first > second) ? first : second;//line6

printf(" is the largest number from %d and %d",first,second);

Line1 - includes required library files to run the C language application

Line2 - is the main method where the application starts from this main () method.

Line3 - is an integer variable declaration for storing integer numbers (non-decimal numbers).

Line4 - is the asking user to enter 2 numbers text.

Line5 - is stored in the entered 2 integer numbers within the scanf method with %d operator.

Line6 - is the ternary operator compares to 2 numbers which is largest.

Line7 - printing the output on the console.

Largest numbers from 3 numbers with the ternary operator

int firstNumber, secondNumber, thirdNumber, largest;//line3

scanf("%d %d %d", &firstNumber, &secondNumber, &thirdNumber);//line5

largest= (firstNumber > secondNumber) ? (firstNumber > secondNumber ? firstNumber : thirdNumber) : (secondNumber > thirdNumber ? secondNumber : thirdNumber);//line5

printf (" is the largest number from %d, %d and %d",firstNumber,secondNumber,thirdNumber);//line7

Line3 - is an integer variable declaration for storing 3 integer numbers (non-decimal numbers).

Line4 - is the asking user to enter 3 numbers text.

Line5 - is stored in the entered 3 integer numbers within the scanf method with the %d operator.

Line6 - is the ternary operator compares to 3 numbers which is largest.

Today we'll discuss the ternary operator in C.

Top 5 Examples of Ternary Operator in C

The Address Operator in C is also called a pointer. This address driver is denoted by “&”. This & symbol is called an ampersand. This & is used in a unary driver. The purpose of this address driver or pointer is used to return the address of the variable. Once we declared a pointer variable, we've to initialize the pointer with a valid memory address; to get the memory address of the variable ampersand is used. When we use the ampersand symbol as a prefix to the variable name & and it gives the address of that variable. An address of the driver is used within C that's returned to the memory address of a variable. These addresses returned by the address of the driver are known as pointers because they “point” to the variable in memory.

While scanning the user input, we used the ampersand operator.

While displaying the address of the variable we used the ampersand operator.

Address operators are commonly used for 2 purposes:

Conduct parameter passing by reference such as name.

Establish pointer values and address of operator’s point to the memory location because the value of the pointer is the memory location or memory address. The data item is saved in memory.

There are two important operators which are highly required if you are working with the pointers. Without these operators, we cannot work with the pointers.

The * Operator (Dereference Operator or Indirection Operator)

1. The * Operator (Dereference Operator or Indirection Operator) -

"Dereference Operator" or "Indirection Operator denoted by an asterisk character (*), * is a unary operator which performs two operations with the pointer (which is used for two purposes with the pointers).

        B) To access the stored value of the memory (location) pointed by the pointer

Let suppose, if we declare a pointer ptrX to store the memory address of an integer variable; then the pointer declaration will be int *ptrX;

B) To access the stored value of the memory (location) pointed by the pointer -

Let suppose, if there is a pointer variable ptrX which is pointing to the address of an integer variable x; then to access the value of x, *ptrX will be used.

2. The & Operator (Address Of Operator) -

The "Address Of" Operator denoted by the ampersand character (&), & is a unary operator, which returns the address of a variable.

After the declaration of a pointer variable, we need to initialize the pointer with the valid memory address; to get the memory address of a variable Address Of" (&) Operator is used.

	int *ptrX;	//integer pointer declaration

	ptrX=&x;	//pointer initialization with the address of x

Address operator is used to store the address of the variable in C. This is denoted by an ampersand (&). This is also used for scanning the user input.

In this article, you can learn about the address operators in C.

Explanation of Address Operator in C

In this section, we will bandy the unary driver in the C programming language. Drivers are the special symbols used to perform fine and logical operations to the given figures or operands and returns results grounded on passed driver between the operands.

A unary driver is a driver used to operate on a single operand to return a new value. In other words, it's a driver that updates the value of an operand or expression's value by using the applicable unary drivers. In Unary Operator, drivers have equal precedence from right to left side associativity.

Given below are the types of unary operators:

The Unary Minus operator is represented using the symbol (-). The unary operator is used to change the sign of any positive value to a negative value. It means it changes the positive number to the negative, and a negative number becomes the positive number using the unary minus operator.

int b = -(a); // use unary minus operator to change the value  

printf (" The value of -n1: %d \n", -n1);  

printf (" The value of -n2: %d ", -n2);  

The unary plus operator is represented as the "+" symbol, and it does not change to the operand value.

int b = (-10); // It does not change the operand value  

It is the unary increment operator, which is denoted by the "++" symbol. The "++" symbol represents the operand's value is increased by 1. It can be used in two ways, as the post-increment and the pre-increment.

Pre Increment:- The pre-increment operator is represented as (++a), which means the value of variable 'a' is increment by 1 before using operand to the expression.

The initial value of x is 10, and using the pre-increment operator (++x) increases the operand value by 1 before assigning it to the variable 'A'.

Post Increment:- The (a++) symbol represents the post-increment operator, which means the value of 'a' is incremented by 1 after assigning the original value to the expression or another variable.

Here the initial value of the x variable is 10 and using the post-increment operator (x++) to assign increment value of the 'x' to the variable 'A'.

In this blog, you'll learn about the unary operator in C.

Unary Operator in C

Operator priority in C tells you which driver is performed first, next, and so on in an expression with further than one driver with different priority. This plays a pivotal part while we're performing day-to-day computation operations. Operator priority in C is used to determine the order of the drivers to calculate the accurate affair. Gap has the loftiest priority whereas comma has the smallest priority inC.

Let’s suppose we have addition, multiplication, division, subtraction, etc. in a single statement. If we do not have this precedence concept then I have simply started calculating from left to right or right to left. But this is not correct because there is sometimes addition, multiplication, and division at starting of the statement, etc. So the user may or may not follow proper order for these operators. So to make a unique solution for calculating the original outcomes developers have introduced this precedence.

Now calculate based on precedence first *, followed by /,+.

Precedence Operators in Single Statement:

What Happens if the same Precedence Operators come in a Single statement? If we get 2 the same precedences appearing in an expression, then it is said to be “Associativity”. Now, in this case, we can calculate this statement either from Left to right or right to left because both are having the same precedence.

5+10+20; //Same output we will get if we calculate from left to right or right to left.

Below are the examples of Operators Precedence in C:

//Asking user to enter 2 numbers as input

//assigning resultant of operators to a variable

//first precedence given to (), followed by / and +

printf("output of %d and %d is = %lf ",a, b,output);

The first compiler reads the entire output statement and starts calculating based on precedence. As we discussed above first precedence is given to parenthesis(()). If inside parenthesis also has more than 2 parameters with different operators then inside parenthesis also followed precedence rule.

Example #2 – Precedence with Arithmetic Operators

printf("Please enter any 2 numbers  \n");

//first precedence given to *, followed by /, %, + and -

printf("Output of %d and %d is =%lf ",a, b,output);

In the above example precedence order is *, /, %, + and -.

Example #3 – Same Addition Associativity with Functions

Today we'll discuss the operators precedence in the C language.

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Overview of C Language

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Unary Operator in C

A Brief Information of Operators Precedence in C

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Trending Blogposts on operator

Overview of C Language

Top 5 Compilers Of C

Data Types In C

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Explanation of Address Operator in C

Unary Operator in C

A Brief Information of Operators Precedence in C

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