Introduction and Overview

Key features of C

• Operating system portability
• Highly efficient object code
• Support of structured programming
• Separate compilation of modules
• Standard function libraries
• Ease of access to hardware features

Applications of the C language

• Database applications
• User interfaces
• Networking applications
• Graphics
• Operating systems
• Business applications
• Engineering and real-time applications

Fundamentals of C Programs

Writing a simple C program

• Learning the form of a C program
• Declaring variables
• Designing program flow and control
• Defining and using functions
• Using standard terminal I/O functions

Fundamental types and storage classes

• Character types
• Integer, short, long, unsigned
• Single- and double-precision floating point
• Storage classes: automatic, register, static and external

Operators and expressions

• Using numeric and relational operators
• Mixed operands and type conversion
• Logical operators
• Bit operations
• Operator precedence and associativity

Conditional program execution

• Applying if and switch statements
• Nesting if and else
• Restrictions on switch values
• Use of break and default with switch

Program loops and iteration

• Uses of while, do and for loops
• Multiple loop variables
• Assignment operators
• Using break and continue

Arrays, Structures and Pointers

Arrays

• Array notation and representation
• Manipulating array elements
• Using multidimensional arrays
• Arrays of unknown or varying size

Structures

• Purpose and usage of structures
• Declaring structures
• Assigning of structures

Pointers to objects

• Graph structures and pointers
• Pointer and address arithmetic
• Pointer operations and declarations
• Using pointers as function arguments
• Dynamic memory allocation
• Defining and using linked lists

Unions

• Components in overlapping memory
• Declaring and using unions

C Program Organisation

Modular programming

• Passing arguments by value
• Scope rules and global variables
• Separate compilation and linkage
• Building your own modules

Packaging of data structures

• Keeping data structures in separate files
• Public .h vs. private .c files
• Hiding private variables and functions

Hardware and Operating Systems

Controlling devices

• Bit access and masking
• Pointing to hardware structures

Operating system interaction

• Reading command line arguments
• Creating and accessing files

Standard C Preprocessor and Library

The Standard C preprocessor

• Defining and calling macros
• Utilising conditional compilation
• Passing values to the compiler

The Standard C library

• Input/output: fopen, fread, ...
• String handling: strcpy, ...
• Math functions: log, sin, ...
• Internationalisation (locales)
• Other Standard C functions