C Programming Code Examples

In C, the "main" function is treated the same as every function, it has a return type (and in some cases accepts inputs via parameters). The only difference is that the main function is "called" by the operating system when the user runs the program. Thus the main function is always the first code executed when a program starts. main() function is a user defined, body of the function is defined by the programmer or we can say main() is programmer/user implemented function, whose prototype is predefined in the compiler. Hence we can say that main() in c programming is user defined as well as predefined because it's prototype is predefined. main() is a system (compiler) declared function whose defined by the user, which is invoked automatically by the operating system when program is being executed. Its first function or entry point of the program from where program start executed, program's execution starts from the main. So main is an important function in c , c++ programming language. is a keyword in C language, void means nothing, whenever we use void as a function return type then that function nothing return. here main() function no return any value. In place of void we can also use int return type of main() function, at that time main() return integer type value. is a name of function which is predefined function in C library. • An operating system always calls the main() function when a programmers or users execute their programming code. • It is responsible for starting and ends of the program. • It is a universally accepted keyword in programming language and cannot change its meaning and name. • A main() function is a user-defined function in C that means we can pass parameters to the main() function according to the requirement of a program. • A main() function is used to invoke the programming code at the run time, not at the compile time of a program. • A main() function is followed by opening and closing parenthesis brackets.

An array is a collection of data items, all of the same type, accessed using a common name. A one-dimensional array is like a list; A two dimensional array is like a table; The C language places no limits on the number of dimensions in an array, though specific implementations may. Some texts refer to one-dimensional arrays as vectors, two-dimensional arrays as matrices, and use the general term arrays when the number of dimensions is unspecified or unimportant. An array of arrays is known as 2D array. The two dimensional (2D) array in C programming is also known as matrix. A matrix can be represented as a table of rows and columns. In C/C++, we can define multi dimensional arrays in simple words as array of arrays. Data in multi dimensional arrays are stored in tabular form (in row major order). General form of declaring N-dimensional arrays is: In the 1D array, we don't need to specify the size of the array if the declaration and initialization are being done simultaneously. However, this will not work with 2D arrays. We will have to define at least the second dimension of the array. The two-dimensional array can be declared and defined in the following way. Multidimensional arrays may be initialized by specifying bracketed values for each row. Following is an array with 3 rows and each row has 4 columns. Just like one-dimensional arrays, two-dimensional arrays also require indices to access the required elements. A row and a column index are needed to access a particular element; for nested loops, two indices (one to traverse the rows and the other to traverse the columns in each row) are required to print a two-dimensional array.

C supports nesting of loops in C. Nesting of loops is the feature in C that allows the looping of statements inside another loop. Any number of loops can be defined inside another loop, i.e., there is no restriction for defining any number of loops. The nesting level can be defined at n times. You can define any type of loop inside another loop; for example, you can define 'while' loop inside a 'for' loop. A loop inside another loop is called a nested loop. The depth of nested loop depends on the complexity of a problem. We can have any number of nested loops as required. Consider a nested loop where the outer loop runs n times and consists of another loop inside it. The inner loop runs m times. Then, the total number of times the inner loop runs during the program execution is n*m. Outer_loop and Inner_loop are the valid loops that can be a 'for' loop, 'while' loop or 'do-while' loop.

An array is defined as the collection of similar type of data items stored at contiguous memory locations. Arrays are the derived data type in C programming language which can store the primitive type of data such as int, char, double, float, etc. It also has the capability to store the collection of derived data types, such as pointers, structure, etc. The array is the simplest data structure where each data element can be randomly accessed by using its index number. C array is beneficial if you have to store similar elements. For example, if we want to store the marks of a student in 6 subjects, then we don't need to define different variables for the marks in the different subject. Instead of that, we can define an array which can store the marks in each subject at the contiguous memory locations. By using the array, we can access the elements easily. Only a few lines of code are required to access the elements of the array. The array contains the following properties. • Each element of an array is of same data type and carries the same size, i.e., int = 4 bytes. • Elements of the array are stored at contiguous memory locations where the first element is stored at the smallest memory location. • Elements of the array can be randomly accessed since we can calculate the address of each element of the array with the given base address and the size of the data element. • 1) Code Optimization: Less code to the access the data. • 2) Ease of traversing: By using the for loop, we can retrieve the elements of an array easily. • 3) Ease of sorting: To sort the elements of the array, we need a few lines of code only. • 4) Random Access: We can access any element randomly using the array. • 1) Allows a fixed number of elements to be entered which is decided at the time of declaration. Unlike a linked list, an array in C is not dynamic. • 2) Insertion and deletion of elements can be costly since the elements are needed to be managed in accordance with the new memory allocation. To declare an array in C, a programmer specifies the type of the elements and the number of elements required by an array as follows This is called a single-dimensional array. The arraySize must be an integer constant greater than zero and type can be any valid C data type. For example, to declare a 10-element array called balance of type double, use this statement Here balance is a variable array which is sufficient to hold up to 10 double numbers. You can initialize an array in C either one by one or using a single statement as follows The number of values between braces { } cannot be larger than the number of elements that we declare for the array between square brackets [ ]. If you omit the size of the array, an array just big enough to hold the initialization is created. Therefore, if you write An element is accessed by indexing the array name. This is done by placing the index of the element within square brackets after the name of the array. The above statement will take the 10^th element from the array and assign the value to salary variable.

In the C Programming Language, the #define directive allows the definition of macros within your source code. These macro definitions allow constant values to be declared for use throughout your code. Macro definitions are not variables and cannot be changed by your program code like variables. You generally use this syntax when creating constants that represent numbers, strings or expressions. is the name of a particular constant. It can either be defined in smaller case or upper case or both. Most of the developers prefer the constant names to be in the upper case to find the differences. defines the value of the constant. is the value that is assigned to that constant which is defined. The expression should always be enclosed within the brackets if it has any operators. In the C programming language, the preprocessor directive acts an important role within which the #define directive is present that is used to define the constant or the micro substitution. The #define directive can use any of the basic data types present in the C standard. The #define preprocessor directive lets a programmer or a developer define the macros within the source code. This macro definition will allow the constant value that should be declared for the usage. Macro definitions cannot be changed within the program's code as one does with other variables, as macros are not variables. The #define is usually used in syntax that created a constant that is used to represent numbers, strings, or other expressions. The #define directive should not be enclosed with the semicolon(;). It is a common mistake done, and one should always treat this directive as any other header file. Enclosing it with a semicolon will generate an error. The #define creates a macro, which is in association with an identifier or is parameterized identifier along with a token string. After the macro is defined, then the compiler can substitute the token string for each occurrence of the identifier within the source file.

The for loop is used in the case where we need to execute some part of the code until the given condition is satisfied. The for loop is also called as a per-tested loop. It is better to use for loop if the number of iteration is known in advance. The for-loop statement is a very specialized while loop, which increases the readability of a program. It is frequently used to traverse the data structures like the array and linked list. First initialization happens and the counter variable gets initialized. In the second step the condition is checked, where the counter variable is tested for the given condition, if the condition returns true then the C statements inside the body of for loop gets executed, if the condition returns false then the for loop gets terminated and the control comes out of the loop. After successful execution of statements inside the body of loop, the counter variable is incremented or decremented, depending on the operation (++ or --).