Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology

Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering

Chapter 2: C Program
Structure and its Components

Introduction to Computer Programming

(C language)

Tran Tuan Anh. Ph.D.

([email protected])
Course Content
🞐 C.1. Introduction to Computers and
Programming
🞐 C.2. C Program Structure and its
Components
🞐 C.3. Variables and Basic Data Types
🞐 C.4. Selection Statements
🞐 C.5. Repetition Statements
🞐 C.6. Functions
🞐 C.7. Arrays
🞐 C.8. Pointers
🞐 C.9. File Processing 2
 References

🞐 [1] “C: How to Program”, 7th Ed. – Paul

Deitel and Harvey Deitel, Prentice Hall, 2012.
🞐 [2] “The C Programming Language”, 2nd Ed.
– Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie,
Prentice Hall, 1988
🞐 and others, especially those on the Internet

3
Content
🞐 Introduction
🞐 A Sample C Program
🞐 Coding Styles
🞐 Data and Standard Output Function
🞐 Data and Standard Input Function
🞐 Data Processing: Simple Example
🞐 Summary
4
 Introduction

🞐 “In our experience, C has proven to be a

pleasant, expressive, and versatile
language for a wide variety of programs. It
is easy to learn, and it wears well as one’s
experience with it grows.”
■ [2], Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie

versatile = able to be used for many different purposes 5

Introduction
Design of Library Library
program (Header: *.h) (Object code: *.lib; *.dll; *.so)

Editor Preprocessor Compiler Linker Executable

Program

Source code Enhanced source code Object code

*.h + *.c *.h + *.c (*.cpp) *.obj
(*.cpp)

gcc; g++
Integrated Development Environment (IDE):
Visual Studio; Eclipse; Qt Creator; Code block; Online tool; etc
Programming tasks using the C language 6
Introduction
Design of Library Library
program (Header: *.h) (Object code: *.lib; *.dll; *.so)

Editor Preprocessor Compiler Linker Executable

Program

Source code Enhanced source code Object code

*.h + *.c *.h + *.c (*.cpp) *.obj
(*.cpp)

gcc; g++
Integrated Development Environment (IDE):
Visual Studio; Eclipse; Qt Creator; Code block; Online tool; etc
Programming tasks using the C language 7
A Sample C Program

A source code file named C2_example1.c

Purpose: display our university’s name

and course’s name on the screen 8
A Sample C Program

A source code file named C2_example1.c

Purpose: display our university’s name

and course’s name on the screen 9
 A Sample C Program

Every C program requires the specific

function named “main” exactly.

The body of the

“main” function is
enclosed in the
brackets {…}.

The body of the The specific

“main” function is A source code file named C2_example1.c extension of
made to serve the C source
specific purpose.
Purpose: display our university’s name code files
and course’s name on the screen 10
A Sample C Program
A directive to the C preprocessor before the program is compiled.
<stdio.h> is used for standard input/output library functions such
as the output function printf() and the input function scanf().

This global definition section is

used for external headers.
Comments in /*…*/ or after //…

A source code file named C2_example1.c

Purpose: display our university’s name

and course’s name on the screen 11
 A Sample C Program
🞐 File name: following the naming conventions
supported by the OS with the .c extension
■ Not include some special symbols: *, /, \, …
■ Avoid using special symbols even if they are allowed
■ Prefer descriptive names
🞐 The “main” function
■ All the files and libraries are compiled into a single
executable program file with exactly one “main”
function.
■ The starting point for the execution of a C program
■ Note: The C language is case-sensitive.
🞐 MAIN vs. Main vs. main
12
A Sample C Program
🞐 The “main” function
void main(){ Open bracket “{“ to start the body section
…
…
} Corresponding close bracket “}“ to end the body
section
int main(void){

} Place for specifying the parameters of the function

Empty or void: no parameter is specified

Data type of the value returned by the “main” function

int: a status value: 0 = no error; 1 = error
EXIT_SUCCESS = 0; EXIT_FAILURE = 1
void: no value is returned 13
 A Sample C Program
🞐 The “main” function
void main(){
statement
printf("Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology\n");
printf("Introduction to Computer Programming\n"); statement

}
Each statement
- ended with a semicolon (;)
- stretched on multiple lines with a backslash \ at the end
- able to be grouped in the brackets {}
- not consider spaces
Several statement types
- sequence: function calling, assignment, break, continue, return, …
- selection: if, if… else, switch
- repetition: for, while, do… while 14
 A Sample C Program
🞐 In addition to “main”, there are keywords/reserved words
in the C language.
[1], p. 42

15
 A Sample C Program
🞐 The global definition section
■ Lines beginning with #
🞐 The #include directive tells the preprocessor to include
the contents of another file.
▪ #include “myHeader.h”
▪ A personal header file in the current directory
▪ #include <stdio.h>
▪ A standard library file in the standard directory \include
🞐 The #define directive to set up symbolic replacements
🞐 The #if test at compile-time to look at the symbols in
#define and turn on and off which lines the compiler uses
■ Function prototypes to validate function calls
■ Global variable declarations
16
 A Sample C Program
🞐 Comments
■ /*…*/: multi-line comment
■ //…: single-line comment

17
 A Sample C Program
How to get the program run for the specified purpose? *.c => a machine code file (e.g. *.exe)

A source code file named C2_example1.c

Purpose: display our university’s name

and course’s name on the screen 18
 A Sample C Program
🞐 Edit:

C2_example1.c

🞐 Compile:

gcc –Wall C2_example1.c –o C2_example1

-Wall: display all the warning types along with the errors if any
-o C2_example1: specify a name for the resulting executable
program

🞐 Run:

C2_example1
19
 A Sample C Program
🞐 GCC = GNU Compiler Collection
🞐 The free GNU C++: gcc.gnu.org/install/
binaries.html
🞐 GCC is available for most platforms,
including Linux, Mac OS X (via Xcode) and
Windows—via tools like Cygwin
(www.cygwin.com) and MinGW
(www.mingw.org)
🞐 Free IDEs: Micrsoft Visual Studio Express
Editions, CodeBlock, Dev C++, …
20
Coding Styles
Which
(A)
one do
you
prefer?

(B)

(C) 21
Coding Styles
🞐 The three different formatted examples for
the same purpose return the same result:

🞐 What problems might we face with (A)?

🞐 What problems might we face with (B)?
🞐 What problems might we face with (C)?
🞐 What else if the program is not defined with
just a few lines; instead, with thousands of
lines?
22
 Coding Styles
🞐 Alignment
■ Statements are aligned level by level based on
the block {} that they are contained.
🞐 Separation (White space)
■ Each statement should placed on a single line.
■ Blank lines should be used for more clarity.
🞐 Comment
■ A comment is added at any level for
explanation, marking, tracking, …
■ Comments from the pseudo code helpful for
program development
■ Never abuse comments to make a program clear
23
Coding Styles
🞐 Naming conventions
■ Descriptive

■ Classified

■ Consistent

■ Agreements if any

🞐 Easy to remember, easy to be referred, easy to

be communicated

🞐 Less error-prone
24
 Coding Styles
🞐 Naming conventions
■ What can you name in a C program except file
names?
🞐 Function: your defined modular processing unit
🞐 Variable: a location in memory where a value can be
stored for use by a program
🞐 Symbolic constant: constant represented as a symbol (a
string) that will be replaced with the value it stands for

🞐 A name should reflect the content and role of the

thing you define in a C program. 25
Coding Styles
🞐 Naming conventions
■ Create a name made up of at most 31 letters,
digits, underscore “_” and starting with a letter
■ Consider verbs, nouns, phrases, …
■ Consider a length of each name: short/long
■ Consider lower-case/upper-case letters
■ Consider prefix/suffix parts
🞐 Function: verb, phrase
🞐 Variable: noun, lower-case letters, short for loops
▪ Global variable: prefix g_
▪ Data type: suffix _ptr for pointers
🞐 Symbolic constant: upper-case letters, underscores 26
 Coding Styles
Should • Should not X
🞐 check_for_errors() 🞐 error_checking()
dump_data_to_file()
🞐 is_any_upper_case() 🞐 any_upper_case_test()
🞐 get_an_upper_case() 🞐 return_an_upper_case()
🞐 set_first_upper_case() 🞐 change_first_upper_case()
🞐 Student *student_prt; 🞐 Student * student;
🞐 int g_thread_number; 🞐 int thread_number;
🞐 static const double PI 🞐 static const double Pi =
= 3.14; 3.14;
🞐 #define SIZE 10 🞐 #define size 10
🞐 … 🞐 … 27
 Coding Styles
🞐 How to make the following program clearer?

28
 Coding Styles
🞐 How to make the following program clearer?

29
Coding Styles

🞐 Check your naming conventions in your

pseudo code

🞐 How many names would you like to

rename?

🞐 What else have you changed on your

pseudo code?

🞐 How clearer is your pseudo code?

30
 Coding Styles
🞐 Practice the formatting rules and conventions
to be part of your own coding habit
🞐 Make sure that your submitted programs are
always well-formatted
🞐 Make sure that your future programs are
readable, interpretable, able to be maintained,
reused, and extended
🞐 More information about coding styles at:
■ http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~eno/coding/CCodingStandard.html

■ http://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/~newhall/unixhelp/c_codestyle.html
31
 Data and Standard Output
Function
🞐 Standard output function: printf()
■ #include <stdio.h>

■ Output the data to the standard output stream

🞐 A sequence of bytes flows from main memory to an
output device: display screen, printer, disk drive,
network connection, and so on.
🞐 Normally and automatically, the standard output
stream is connected to the screen.

Examples:

32
 Data and Standard Output
Function
🞐 Formatting capabilities of the printf function
■ Rounding floating-point values to an indicated number
of decimal places.
■ Aligning a column of numbers with decimal points
appearing one above the other.
■ Right justification and left justification of outputs.
■ Inserting literal characters at precise locations in a
line of output.
■ Representing floating-point numbers in exponential
format.
■ Representing unsigned integers in octal and
hexadecimal format.
■ Displaying all types of data with fixed-size field widths
and precisions.
33
 Data and Standard Output
Function

- format-control-string describes the output format.

- other-arguments (optional) correspond to each conversion
specification in format-control-string.

Each conversion specification begins with a percent sign (%) and

ends with a conversion specifier.

There can be many conversion specifications in one format control

string.

Examples:

The 1st conversion specification: %5.2f => argument: x

The 2nd conversion specification: %5.2f => argument: y 34
 Data and Standard Output
Function

format-control-string is summarized as follows:

%[flag][width][.precision]specifier

specifier = d/i, u, o, x/X, f/F, e/E, g/G, a/A, c, s, p, n, %

precision = .number, .*

width = number, *

flag = +, -, space, #, 0
35
Data and Standard Output
Function

36
Data and Standard Output
Function

c Display a character.
s Display a sequence of characters until a terminating null \0
character is encountered.

37
Data and Standard Output
Function
Flags to supplement its output formatting capabilities,
placed immediately to the right of the percent sign

38
Data and Standard Output
Function

39
Data and Standard Output
Function

40
41
Data and Standard Output
Function

42
 Data and Standard Input
Function
🞐 Standard input function: scanf()
■ #include <stdio.h>
■ Input the data from the standard input stream
🞐 A sequence of bytes flows from an input device:
keyboard, disk drive, network connection, and so on to
main memory.
🞐 Normally and automatically, the standard input stream
is connected to the keyboard.

format-control-string describes the formats of the input.

other-arguments are pointers to variables in which the input will be stored.
43
 Data and Standard Input
Function
The conversion specifiers used to input all types of data

44
 Data and Standard Input
Function
The conversion specifiers used to input all types of data

45
 Data and Standard Input
Function
The conversion specifiers used to input all types of data

Input data flow

from an input device
to main memory.

Input device = keyboard

Input

Input
Main memory ≈ variable ? 46
 Data and Standard Input
Function
🞐 How to refer to the place in main memory
where the input data will be stored?
■ Memory is addressable contiguously.

■ Address is used!

Input a string: Input Input a character: A Input an integer: -123

Input device = keyboard Input device = keyboard Input device = keyboard

Input A -123

Input A -123
Main memory ≈ variable Main memory ≈ variable Main memory ≈ variable

Varying size: user-predefined Fixed sizes: character = 1 byte, integer = 4 bytes, …47
 Data and Standard Input
Function
Input a string: Input Input a character: A Input an integer: -123

Input device = keyboard Input device = keyboard Input device = keyboard

Input A -123

Input A -123
Main memory ≈ variable Main memory ≈ variable Main memory ≈ variable

Varying size: user-predefined Fixed sizes: character = 1 byte, integer = 4 bytes, …

char aString[5]; char aChar; int anInteger;

… … …
scanf(“%s”, aString) scanf(“%c”, &aChar) scanf(“%d”, &anInteger)

printf(“%s”, printf(“%c”, aChar) printf(“%d”, anInteger)

aString)
In C, a string is defined as an array (sequence) of characters. The memory of this array
is referred by the address of the first character represented by the name of the array. 48
Data and Standard Input
Function
🞐 Put them altogether

49
Data and Standard Input
Function
🞐 Put them altogether

50
Data and Standard Input
Function
🞐 Input a date in the form of: dd/mm/yyyy

51
Data and Standard Input
Function
🞐 Input a date in the form of: dd Month yyyy

???

52
Data Processing: Simple Example
🞐 Program for computing the distance between
the center and a given point in a 2D space
■ Input: x, y as a coordinate of a given point
■ Output: the distance along with the given point
on screen
y
(3, 2)

0 x
Distance (i.e. the length of
the blue line) = 3.605551 53
Data Processing: Simple Example
🞐 Program for computing the distance between
the center and a given point in a 2D space
■ Input: x, y as a coordinate of a given point
■ Output: the distance along with the given point
on screen

54
Data Processing: Simple Example

printf() stdio.h
🞐 Function calling: scanf() stdio.h
sqrt() math.h
system() stdlib.h 55
 Summary

🞐 Start programming with the C language

■ The components of a standard C program

■ Input & Output vs. Read & Write vs. scanf & printf

🞐 Make your programs not only executable but

also readable
■ Coding styles

56
Chapter 2: C Program Structure
and its Components

57