Getting started with C

C language is a popular programming language that was developed in 1970 by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs. The C programming language was developed primarily to build the UNIX operating system. It is widely used because it is simple, powerful, efficient, and portable.

Features of C Programming Language

The C programming language is rich in different types of features. Some of them are:

1. Procedural Language: C is a procedural language which means the flow of execution of each statement is performed step by step.
2. Platform Independent: C is a portable Language which means C programs written for one platform can be compiled and executed on another platform with little or no modification.
3. Fast Speed: C programming language is considered as one of the fastest programming languages. C is a compiler-based language so the program written in C language will be the fastest to be compiled.
4. Low-Level Memory Management: C provides the concept of pointers using which we can store the memory addresses. It allows the low-level memory manipulation in the language.
5. Easy to Learn: C is a simple programming language that is easy to learn. Moreover, it also helps in learning other languages due to the structural similarities.

C Tutorial

1. Introduction to C

Any programming language is best learned by writing programs. As a tradition, we generally start programming by writing the Hello World Program. After that, we study basic language concepts and keep moving to the advanced concepts.

Refer to the article C Language Introduction to start learning C Language.

2. Basic Syntax of C

The syntax of C programming language includes various rules that define the structure of C language such as how to specify statements, define functions, etc.

Refer to the article C Basic Syntax to learn the Syntax of the C language in detail.

3. Variables and Data Types

A variable is a name associated with a memory location to store data. A data type is the type of data a variable can store. Some common data types in C are int, float, double, char, etc.

Refer to the article C Variables and Data Types in C for more details learn Variables and Data types in detail.

4. Operators in C

Operators are the symbols that perform a specific operation to be performed on the operands. C supports various operators like arithmetic, relational, logical, assignment, etc.

Types of operators:

1. Arithmetic Operators
2. Relational Operators
3. Logical Operators
4. Bitwise Operators
5. Assignment Operators
6. Other Operators

Refer to the article Operators in C for more details.

5. Input and Output

Input means reading data from input devices or files. Output means writing the data to the console or files. C Standard Library provides various input and output functions. scanf() and printf() are commonly used function.
Refer to the article Basic Input and Output in C to learn about Input and Output methods in detail.

6. Conditional Statements

Conditional Statements are used to control the normal flow of execution of the program. These statements are used to make decisions whether to execute a specific block of code or not based on the specific conditions.

The main decision-making statements in C are:

1. if Statements
2. If-else Statement
3. If-else-if Ladder
4. Nested If-else Statements
5. Conditional Operator
6. Switch-case Statements

Refer to the article Decision Making in C / C++ (if, if..else, Nested if, if-else-if ) to learn Control Statements in detail.

7. Loops

In C, loops are used to repeatedly execute a block of code till a given condition is true. Loops are also a part of control statements just like conditional statements.

Types of Loops in C are:

1. For loop
2. while loop
3. do-while loop

Refer to article C – Loops to learn the concept of Loops in detail.

8. Functions

Functions are the block of code that is used to perform a specific task. It is a set of statements enclosed within {} braces. Functions make the code more readable and improve the maintainability of the code.

Types of functions:

1. Predefined functions: The functions that are already defined in the C Standard Library are predefined functions. For example, printf() and scanf().
2. User-defined functions: The functions created by the user to perform a specific task are the user-defined functions.

Refer to the article C Functions for more details.

9. Pointers

In C, pointers are the variables that can store the address of other variables, functions, structures, and even other pointers. The pointer points to the memory location where the data is actually stored. Using pointers we can access and manipulate the data by directly accessing the memory where the data is stored.

Refer to the article C Pointers to learn the concept of pointers in detail.

10. Arrays

In C, Array is a way of storing multiple elements of the same data type. Elements in an array are stored in contiguous memory locations and each element in an array is accessed using an index, which represents its position within the array.

Refer to the article C Arrays to learn Arrays in detail.

11. Strings

In C, a string is a sequence of characters enclosed within “” double quotes. It is stored as an array of characters terminated by a null character ‘\0’. For example, “GeeksforGeeks”, “gfg”, etc are strings.

Refer to the article Strings in C to learn the concept of C Strings in detail.

12. File Management

File management refers to the handling and manipulation of files in the C programming language.

Following are the operations that can be performed on a file:

1. Creation of a file.
2. Opening a file.
3. Reading the data from a file.
4. Writing data to a file.
5. Closing a file.
6. Getting the file position.
7. Deleting a file.
8. Renaming a file.

Refer to the article Basics of File Handling in C for more details on File Management.