C - Programming

Let's start with the simplest possible C program and use it both to understand the basics of C and the C compilation process. Type the following program into a standard text editor (vi or emacs on UNIX, Notepad on Windows or TeachText on a Macintosh). Then save the program to a file named samp.c. If you leave off .c, you will probably get some sort of error when you compile it, so make sure you remember the .c. Also, make sure that your editor does not automatically append some extra characters (such as .txt) to the name of the file. Here's the first program:

#include 

int main()
{
   printf("This is output from my first program!\n");
   return 0;
}

When executed, this program instructs the computer to print out the line "This is output from my first program!" -- then the program quits. You can't get much simpler than that!

Position When you enter this program, position #include so that the pound sign is in column 1 (the far left side). Otherwise, the spacing and indentation can be any way you like it. On some UNIX systems, you will find a program called cb, the C Beautifier, which will format code for you. The spacing and indentation shown above is a good example to follow.

To compile this code, take the following steps:

• On a UNIX machine, type gcc samp.c -o samp (if gcc does not work, try cc). This line invokes the C compiler called gcc, asks it to compile samp.c and asks it to place the executable file it creates under the name samp. To run the program, type samp (or, on some UNIX machines, ./samp).
• On a DOS or Windows machine using DJGPP, at an MS-DOS prompt type gcc samp.c -o samp.exe. This line invokes the C compiler called gcc, asks it to compile samp.c and asks it to place the executable file it creates under the name samp.exe. To run the program, type samp.
• If you are working with some other compiler or development system, read and follow the directions for the compiler you are using to compile and execute the program.

You should see the output "This is output from my first program!" when you run the program. Here is what happened when you compiled the program:

If you mistype the program, it either will not compile or it will not run. If the program does not compile or does not run correctly, edit it again and see where you went wrong in your typing. Fix the error and try again.

• This C program starts with #include . This line includes the "standard I/O library" into your program. The standard I/O library lets you read input from the keyboard (called "standard in"), write output to the screen (called "standard out"), process text files stored on the disk, and so on. It is an extremely useful library. C has a large number of standard libraries like stdio, including string, time and math libraries. A library is simply a package of code that someone else has written to make your life easier (we'll discuss libraries a bit later).

• The line int main() declares the main function. Every C program must have a function named main somewhere in the code. We will learn more about functions shortly. At run time, program execution starts at the first line of the main function.

• In C, the { and } symbols mark the beginning and end of a block of code. In this case, the block of code making up the main function contains two lines.

• The printf statement in C allows you to send output to standard out (for us, the screen). The portion in quotes is called the format string and describes how the data is to be formatted when printed. The format string can contain string literals such as "This is output from my first program!," symbols for carriage returns (\n), and operators as placeholders for variables (see below). If you are using UNIX, you can type man 3 printf to get complete documentation for the printf function. If not, see the documentation included with your compiler for details about the printf function.

• The return 0; line causes the function to return an error code of 0 (no error) to the shell that started execution. More on this capability a bit later.