Chapter 2

Introduction to C Programming
C How to Program, 8/e, GE

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 2.1 Introduction

• The C language facilitates a structured and

disciplined approach to computer program
design.
• In this chapter we introduce C programming
and present several examples that illustrate
many important features of C.
• In Chapters 3 and 4 we present an
introduction to structured programming in
C.
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 2.2 A Simple C Program:
Printing a Line of Text
• We begin by considering a simple C
program.
• Our first example prints a line of text
(Fig. 2.1).

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 2.2 A Simple C Program:
Printing a Line of Text (Cont.)
• // Fig. 2.1: fig02_01.c
// A first program in C
– begin with //, indicating that these two lines
are comments.
– Comments document programs and improve
program readability.
– Comments do not cause the computer to
perform any action when the program is run.

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 2.2 A Simple C Program:
Printing a Line of Text (Cont.)
• Comments are ignored by the C compiler
and do not cause any machine-language
object code to be generated.
• Comments also help other people read and
understand your program.

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 2.2 A Simple C Program:
Printing a Line of Text (Cont.)
• You can also use /*…*/ multi-line comments in which
everything from /* on the first line to */ at the end of
the line is a comment.
• We prefer // comments because they’re shorter and
they eliminate the common programming errors that
occur with /*…*/ comments, especially when the
closing */ is omitted.
#include Preprocessor Directive
• #include <stdio.h>
– is a directive to the C preprocessor.

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 2.2 A Simple C Program:
Printing a Line of Text (Cont.)
• Lines beginning with # are processed by the
preprocessor before compilation.
• Line 3 tells the preprocessor to include the contents of
the standard input/output header (<stdio.h>) in the
program.
• This header contains information used by the compiler
when compiling calls to standard input/output library
functions such as printf.
Blank Lines and White Space
• You use blank lines, space characters and tab characters
(i.e., “tabs”) to make programs easier to read.
• Together, these characters are known as white space.
White-space characters are normally ignored by the
compiler.
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 2.2 A Simple C Program:
Printing a Line of Text (Cont.)
The main Function
• int main( void )
– is a part of every C program.
– The parentheses after main indicate that main is a program
building block called a function.

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 2.2 A Simple C Program:
Printing a Line of Text (Cont.)
• C programs contain one or more functions, one of
which must be main.
• Every program in C begins executing at the
function main.
• The keyword int to the left of main indicates
that main “returns” an integer (whole number)
value.
• We’ll explain what it means for a function to
“return a value” when we demonstrate how to
create your own functions in Chapter 5.
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 2.2 A Simple C Program:
Printing a Line of Text (Cont.)
• For now, simply include the keyword int to
the left of main in each of your programs.
• Functions also can receive information
when they’re called upon to execute.
• The void in parentheses here means that
main does not receive any information.

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 2.2 A Simple C Program:
Printing a Line of Text (Cont.)
• A left brace, {, begins the body of every function
• A corresponding right brace ends each function
• This pair of braces and the portion of the program
between the braces is called a block.
An Output Statement
• printf( "Welcome to C!\n" );
– instructs the computer to perform an action, namely to print on
the screen the string of characters marked by the quotation
marks.
– A string is sometimes called a character string, a message or a
literal.

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 2.2 A Simple C Program:
Printing a Line of Text (Cont.)
• The entire line, including the printf function (the “f”
stands for “formatted”), its argument within the parentheses
and the semicolon (;), is called a statement.
• Every statement must end with a semicolon (also known as
the statement terminator).
• When the preceding printf statement is executed, it prints
the message Welcome to C! on the screen.
• The characters normally print exactly as they appear
between the double quotes in the printf statement.
Escape Sequences
• Notice that the characters \n were not printed on the screen.
• The backslash (\) is called an escape character.
• It indicates that printf is supposed to do something out of
the ordinary.

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 2.2 A Simple C Program:
Printing a Line of Text (Cont.)
• When encountering a backslash in a string, the
compiler looks ahead at the next character and
combines it with the backslash to form an escape
sequence.
• The escape sequence \n means newline.
• When a newline appears in the string output by a
printf, the newline causes the cursor to position
to the beginning of the next line on the screen.
• Some common escape sequences are listed in
Fig. 2.2.
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 2.2 A Simple C Program: Printing a
Line of Text (Cont.)
• Because the backslash has special meaning in a string, i.e.,
the compiler recognizes it as an escape character, we use a
double backslash (\\) to place a single backslash in a
string.
• Printing a double quote also presents a problem because
double quotes mark the boundaries of a string—such
quotes are not printed.
• By using the escape sequence \" in a string to be output by
printf, we indicate that printf should display a double
quote.
• The right brace, }, indicates that the end of main has been
reached.
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 2.2 A Simple C Program:
Printing a Line of Text (Cont.)
• We said that printf causes the computer
to perform an action.
• As any program executes, it performs a
variety of actions and makes decisions.
• Chapter 3 discusses this action/decision
model of programming in depth.

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 2.2 A Simple C Program: Printing a
Line of Text (Cont.)
The Linker and Executables
• Standard library functions like printf and scanf are not
part of the C programming language.
• For example, the compiler cannot find a spelling error in
printf or scanf.
• When the compiler compiles a printf statement, it
merely provides space in the object program for a “call” to
the library function.
• But the compiler does not know where the library
functions are—the linker does.
• When the linker runs, it locates the library functions and
inserts the proper calls to these library functions in the
object program.
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 2.2 A Simple C Program: Printing a
Line of Text (Cont.)
• Now the object program is complete and
ready to be executed.
• For this reason, the linked program is called
an executable.
• If the function name is misspelled, it’s the
linker that will spot the error, because it will
not be able to match the name in the C
program with the name of any known
function in the libraries.
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 2.2 A Simple C Program: Printing a
Line of Text (Cont.)
Using Multiple printfs
• The printf function can print Welcome to C! several
different ways.
• For example, the program of Fig. 2.3 produces the same
output as the program of Fig. 2.1.
• This works because each printf resumes printing where
the previous printf stopped printing.
• The first printf prints Welcome followed by a space and
the second printf begins printing on the same line
immediately following the space.

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 2.2 A Simple C Program: Printing a
Line of Text (Cont.)
• One printf can print several lines by using
additional newline characters as in Fig. 2.4.
• Each time the \n (newline) escape
sequence is encountered, output continues
at the beginning of the next line.

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2.3 Another Simple C Program: Adding
Two Integers
• Our next program (fig. 2.5) uses the
Standard Library function scanf to obtain
two integers typed by a user at the
keyboard, computes the sum of these values
and prints the result using printf.
• [In the input/output dialog of Fig. 2.5, we
emphasize the numbers entered by the user
in bold.]

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 2.3 Another Simple C Program: Adding
Two Integers (Cont.)
Variables and Variable Definitions
• int integer1; // first number to be entered by user
int integer2; // second number to be entered by user
int sum; // variable in which sum will be stored
are definitions.
• The names integer1, integer2 and sum are the names of
variables—locations in memory where values can be stored
for use by a program.
• These definitions specify that the variables integer1,
integer2 and sum are of type int, which means that they’ll
hold integer values, i.e., whole numbers such as 7, –11, 0,
31914 and the like.

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2.3 Another Simple C Program: Adding
Two Integers (Cont.)
• All variables must be defined with a name and a data
type before they can be used in a program.
• The preceding definitions could have been combined
into a single definition statement as follows:
• int integer1, integer2, sum;
but that would have made it difficult to describe the
variables with corresponding comments

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2.3 Another Simple C Program: Adding
Two Integers (Cont.)
Identifiers and Case Sensitivity
• A variable name in C is any valid identifier.
• An identifier is a series of characters consisting of
letters, digits and underscores (_) that does not begin
with a digit.
• C is case sensitive—uppercase and lowercase letters are
different in C, so a1 and A1 are different identifiers.

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2.3 Another Simple C Program: Adding
Two Integers (Cont.)
Prompting Messages
• printf( "Enter first integer\n" ); // prompt
– displays the literal “Enter first integer” and positions the
cursor to the beginning of the next line.
– This message is called a prompt because it tells the user to take
a specific action.

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2.3 Another Simple C Program: Adding
Two Integers (Cont.)
The scanf Function and Formatted Inputs
• The next statement
• scanf( "%d", &integer1 ); // read an integer
uses scanf to obtain a value from the user.
• The scanf function reads from the standard input,
which is usually the keyboard.

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2.3 Another Simple C Program: Adding
Two Integers (Cont.)
• This scanf has two arguments, "%d" and &integer1.
• The first, the format control string, indicates the type of
data that should be input by the user.
• The %d conversion specifier indicates that the data should
be an integer (the letter d stands for “decimal integer”).
• The % in this context is treated by scanf (and printf as
we’ll see) as a special character that begins a conversion
specifier.
• The second argument of scanf begins with an
ampersand (&)—called the address operator in C—
followed by the variable name.

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2.3 Another Simple C Program: Adding
Two Integers (Cont.)
• The &, when combined with the variable name, tells
scanf the location (or address) in memory at which
the variable integer1 is stored.
• The computer then stores the value that the user
enters for integer1 at that location.
• The use of ampersand (&) is often confusing to novice
programmers or to people who have programmed in
other languages that do not require this notation.
• For now, just remember to precede each variable in
every call to scanf with an ampersand.

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2.3 Another Simple C Program: Adding
Two Integers (Cont.)
• When the computer executes the preceding scanf, it
waits for the user to enter a value for variable integer1.
• The user responds by typing an integer, then pressing the
Enter key to send the number to the computer.
• The computer then assigns this number, or value, to the
variable integer1.
• Any subsequent references to integer1 in this program
will use this same value.
• Functions printf and scanf facilitate interaction
between the user and the computer.
• Because this interaction resembles a dialogue, it’s often
called interactive computing.

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2.3 Another Simple C Program: Adding
Two Integers (Cont.)
• printf( "Enter second integer\n" ); // prompt
– displays the message Enter second integer on the
screen, then positions the cursor to the beginning of the
next line.
– This printf also prompts the user to take
action.
• scanf( "%d", &integer2 ); // read an integer
– obtains a value for variable integer2 from the user.

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2.3 Another Simple C Program: Adding
Two Integers (Cont.)
Assignment Statement
• The assignment statement
• sum = integer1 + integer2; // assign total to sum
calculates the total of variables integer1 and integer2
and assigns the result to variable sum using the assignment
operator =.
• The statement is read as, “sum gets the value of integer1 +
integer2.” Most calculations are performed in assignments.
• The = operator and the + operator are called binary operators
because each has two operands.
• The + operator’s two operands are integer1 and integer2.
• The = operator’s two operands are sum and the value of the
expression integer1 + integer2.

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2.3 Another Simple C Program: Adding
Two Integers (Cont.)
Printing with a Format Control String
• printf( "Sum is %d\n", sum ); // print sum
– calls function printf to print the literal Sum is followed by the
numerical value of variable sum on the screen.
– This printf has two arguments, "Sum is %d\n" and sum.
– The first argument is the format control string.
– It contains some literal characters to be displayed, and it
contains the conversion specifier %d indicating that an integer
will be printed.
– The second argument specifies the value to be printed.
– Notice that the conversion specifier for an integer is the same in
both printf and scanf.

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2.3 Another Simple C Program: Adding
Two Integers (Cont.)
Calculations in printf Statements
• We could have combined the previous two statements into
the statement
• printf( "Sum is %d\n", integer1 + integer2 );
• The right brace, }, at line 21 indicates that the end of function
main has been reached.

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 2.4 Memory Concepts
• Variable names such as integer1, integer2 and sum
actually correspond to locations in the computer’s
memory.
• Every variable has a name, a type and a value.
• In the addition program of Fig. 2.5, when the statement
• scanf( "%d", &integer1 ); // read an integer
• is executed, the value entered by the user is placed into a
memory location to which the name integer1 has
been assigned.
• Suppose the user enters the number 45 as the value for
integer1.
• The computer will place 45 into location integer1 as
shown in Fig. 2.6.

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 2.4 Memory Concepts (Cont.)

• Whenever a value is placed in a memory location, the

value replaces the previous value in that location; thus,
this process is said to be destructive.
• When the statement
• scanf( "%d", &integer2 ); // read an integer
executes, suppose the user enters the value 72.
• This value is placed into location integer2, and
memory appears as in Fig. 2.7.
• These locations are not necessarily adjacent in memory.

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 2.4 Memory Concepts (Cont.)

• Once the program has obtained values for

integer1 and integer2, it adds these values
and places the total into variable sum.
• sum = integer1 + integer2; // assign total to sum
– replaces whatever value was stored in sum.

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 2.4 Memory Concepts (Cont.)

• This occurs when the calculated total of

integer1 and integer2 is placed into location
sum (destroying the value already in sum).
• After sum is calculated, memory appears as
in Fig. 2.8.
• The values of integer1 and integer2 appear
exactly as they did before they were used in
the calculation.

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 2.4 Memory Concepts (Cont.)

• They were used, but not destroyed, as the

computer performed the calculation.
• Thus, when a value is read from a memory
location, the process is said to be
nondestructive.

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 2.5 Arithmetic in C
• Most C programs perform calculations using the C arithmetic
operators (Fig. 2.9).
• The asterisk (*) indicates multiplication and the percent sign
(%) denotes the remainder operator, which is introduced
below.
• In algebra, to multiply a times b, we simply place these single-
letter variable names side by side as in ab.
• In C, however, if we were to do this, ab would be interpreted as
a single, two-letter name (or identifier).
• Therefore, C requires that multiplication be explicitly denoted
by using the * operator as in a * b.
• The arithmetic operators are all binary operators.
• For example, the expression 3 + 7 contains the binary operator
+ and the operands 3 and 7.
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 2.5 Arithmetic in C (Cont.)
Integer Division and the Remainder Operator
• Integer division yields an integer result
• For example, the expression 7 / 4 evaluates to 1 and the
expression 17 / 5 evaluates to 3
• C provides the remainder operator, %, which yields the
remainder after integer division
• Can be used only with integer operands
• The expression x % y yields the remainder after x is divided
by y
• Thus, 7 % 4 yields 3 and 17 % 5 yields 2

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 2.5 Arithmetic in C (Cont.)

Arithmetic Expressions in Straight-Line Form

• Arithmetic expressions in C must be written in straight-line
form to facilitate entering programs into the computer.
• Thus, expressions such as “a divided by b” must be written
as a/b so that all operators and operands appear in a
straight line.
• The algebraic notation
a
______

b
is generally not acceptable to compilers, although some
special-purpose software packages do support more natural
notation for complex mathematical expressions.
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 2.5 Arithmetic in C (Cont.)

Parentheses for Grouping Subexpressions

• Parentheses are used in C expressions in the
same manner as in algebraic expressions.
• For example, to multiply a times the
quantity b + c we write a * ( b + c ).

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 2.5 Arithmetic in C (Cont.)

Rules of Operator Precedence

• C applies the operators in arithmetic
expressions in a precise sequence determined by
the following rules of operator precedence,
which are generally the same as those in algebra:
– Operators in expressions contained within pairs of
parentheses are evaluated first. Parentheses are said
to be at the “highest level of precedence.” In cases of
nested, or embedded, parentheses, such as
• ( ( a + b ) + c )
the operators in the innermost pair of parentheses are applied
first.

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 2.5 Arithmetic in C (Cont.)
– Multiplication, division and remainder operations are
applied next. If an expression contains several
multiplication, division and remainder operations,
evaluation proceeds from left to right. Multiplication,
division and remainder are said to be on the same level of
precedence.
– Addition and subtraction operations are evaluated next. If an
expression contains several addition and subtraction
operations, evaluation proceeds from left to right. Addition
and subtraction also have the same level of precedence,
which is lower than the precedence of the multiplication,
division and remainder operations.
– The assignment operator (=) is evaluated last.
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 2.5 Arithmetic in C (Cont.)

• The rules of operator precedence specify the

order C uses to evaluate expressions. When we
say evaluation proceeds from left to right,
we’re referring to the associativity of the
operators.
• We’ll see that some operators associate from
right to left.
• Figure 2.10 summarizes these rules of operator
precedence for the operators we’ve seen so far.

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 2.5 Arithmetic in C (Cont.)

• Figure 2.11 illustrates the order in which

the operators are applied.

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 2.5 Arithmetic in C (Cont.)

• As in algebra, it’s acceptable to place

unnecessary parentheses in an expression
to make the expression clearer.
• These are called redundant parentheses.

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 2.6 Decision Making: Equality and
Relational Operators
• Executable C statements either perform actions (such
as calculations or input or output of data) or make
decisions (we’ll soon see several examples of these).
• We might make a decision in a program, for example,
to determine whether a person’s grade on an exam is
greater than or equal to 60 and whether the program
should print the message “Congratulations! You
passed.”
• This section introduces a simple version of C’s if
statement that allows a program to make a decision
based on the truth or falsity of a statement of fact
called a condition.
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 2.6 Decision Making: Equality and
Relational Operators
• If the condition is true (i.e., the condition is met) the
statement in the body of the if statement is executed.
• If the condition is false (i.e., the condition isn’t met)
the body statement is not executed.
• Whether the body statement is executed or not, after
the if statement completes, execution proceeds with
the next statement after the if statement.
• Conditions in if statements are formed by using the
equality operators and relational operators
summarized in Fig. 2.12.

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 2.6 Decision Making: Equality and
Relational Operators
• The relational operators all have the same
level of precedence and they associate left to
right.
• The equality operators have a lower level of
precedence than the relational operators
and they also associate left to right.
• In C, a condition may actually be any
expression that generates a zero (false) or
nonzero (true) value.
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 2.6 Decision Making: Equality and
Relational Operators
• Figure 2.13 uses six if statements to
compare two numbers entered by the user.
• If the condition in any of these if
statements is true, the printf statement
associated with that if executes.

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 2.6 Decision Making: Equality and
Relational Operators
• The program uses scanf to input two
numbers.
• Each conversion specifier has a
corresponding argument in which a value
will be stored.
• The first %d converts a value to be stored in
the variable num1, and the second %d
converts a value to be stored in variable
num2.
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 2.6 Decision Making: Equality and
Relational Operators
Comparing Numbers
• The if statement
if ( num1 == num2 ) {
printf( "%d is equal to %d\n", num1, num2 );
}
compares the values of variables num1 and num2 to test
for equality.
• If the conditions are true in one or more of the if
statements, the corresponding body statement displays
an appropriate line of text.
• Indenting the body of each if statement and placing
blank lines above and below each if statement
enhances program readability.

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 2.6 Decision Making: Equality and
Relational Operators
• A left brace, {, begins the body of each if statement
• A corresponding right brace, }, ends each if statement’s
body
• Any number of statements can be placed in the body of
an if statement.

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 2.6 Decision Making: Equality and
Relational Operators
• Figure 2.14 lists from highest to lowest the
precedence of the operators introduced in this
chapter.
• Operators are shown top to bottom in decreasing
order of precedence.
• The equals sign is also an operator.
• All these operators, with the exception of the
assignment operator =, associate from left to right.
• The assignment operator (=) associates from right
to left.
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 2.6 Decision Making: Equality and
Relational Operators
• Some of the words we’ve used in the C
programs in this chapter—in particular int
and if—are keywords or reserved words of
the language.
• Figure 2.15 contains the C keywords.
• These words have special meaning to the C
compiler, so you must be careful not to use
these as identifiers such as variable names.

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 2.7 Secure C Programming
• CERT C Secure Coding Standard
– Guidelines that help you avoid programming practices that open
systems to attacks
• Avoid Single-Argument printfs
– If you need to display a string that terminates with a newline,
use the puts function, which displays its string argument
followed by a newline character
– For example
• printf( "Welcome to C!\n" );
– should be written as:
• puts( "Welcome to C!" );
– We did not include \n in the preceding string because puts adds
it automatically.
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 2.7 Secure C Programming (cont.)

• If you need to display a string without a

terminating newline character, use printf
with two arguments.
– For example
• printf( "Welcome " );
– should be written as:
• printf( "%s", "Welcome " );
– These changes are responsible coding practices
that eliminate certain security C vulnerabilities
as we get deeper into C
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