C Programming Code Examples

Read formatted data from stdin. Reads data from stdin and stores them according to the parameter format into the locations pointed by the additional arguments. The additional arguments should point to already allocated objects of the type specified by their corresponding format specifier within the format string. In C programming, scanf() is one of the commonly used function to take input from the user. The scanf() function reads formatted input from the standard input such as keyboards. The scanf() function enables the programmer to accept formatted inputs to the application or production code. Moreover, by using this function, the users can provide dynamic input values to the application. C string that contains a sequence of characters that control how characters extracted from the stream are treated: • Whitespace character: the function will read and ignore any whitespace characters encountered before the next non-whitespace character (whitespace characters include spaces, newline and tab characters -- see isspace). A single whitespace in the format string validates any quantity of whitespace characters extracted from the stream (including none). • Non-whitespace character, except format specifier (%): Any character that is not either a whitespace character (blank, newline or tab) or part of a format specifier (which begin with a % character) causes the function to read the next character from the stream, compare it to this non-whitespace character and if it matches, it is discarded and the function continues with the next character of format. If the character does not match, the function fails, returning and leaving subsequent characters of the stream unread. • Format specifiers: A sequence formed by an initial percentage sign (%) indicates a format specifier, which is used to specify the type and format of the data to be retrieved from the stream and stored into the locations pointed by the additional arguments. A format specifier for scanf follows this prototype: %[*][width][length]specifier Where the specifier character at the end is the most significant component, since it defines which characters are extracted, their interpretation and the type of its corresponding argument: Any number of digits, optionally preceded by a sign (+ or -). Decimal digits assumed by default (0-9), but a 0 prefix introduces octal digits (0-7), and 0x hexadecimal digits (0-f). Signed argument. Any number of decimal digits (0-9), optionally preceded by a sign (+ or -). d is for a signed argument, and u for an unsigned. Any number of octal digits (0-7), optionally preceded by a sign (+ or -). Unsigned argument. Any number of hexadecimal digits (0-9, a-f, A-F), optionally preceded by 0x or 0X, and all optionally preceded by a sign (+ or -). Unsigned argument. A series of decimal digits, optionally containing a decimal point, optionally preceeded by a sign (+ or -) and optionally followed by the e or E character and a decimal integer (or some of the other sequences supported by strtod). Implementations complying with C99 also support hexadecimal floating-point format when preceded by 0x or 0X. The next character. If a width other than 1 is specified, the function reads exactly width characters and stores them in the successive locations of the array passed as argument. No null character is appended at the end. Any number of non-whitespace characters, stopping at the first whitespace character found. A terminating null character is automatically added at the end of the stored sequence. A sequence of characters representing a pointer. The particular format used depends on the system and library implementation, but it is the same as the one used to format %p in fprintf. Any number of the characters specified between the brackets. A dash (-) that is not the first character may produce non-portable behavior in some library implementations. Any number of characters none of them specified as characters between the brackets. No input is consumed. The number of characters read so far from stdin is stored in the pointed location. A % followed by another % matches a single %. Except for n, at least one character shall be consumed by any specifier. Otherwise the match fails, and the scan ends there. The format specifier can also contain sub-specifiers: asterisk (*), width and length (in that order), which are optional and follow these specifications: An optional starting asterisk indicates that the data is to be read from the stream but ignored (i.e. it is not stored in the location pointed by an argument). Specifies the maximum number of characters to be read in the current reading operation (optional). One of hh, h, l, ll, j, z, t, L (optional). This alters the expected type of the storage pointed by the corresponding argument (see below). Depending on the format string, the function may expect a sequence of additional arguments, each containing a pointer to allocated storage where the interpretation of the extracted characters is stored with the appropriate type. There should be at least as many of these arguments as the number of values stored by the format specifiers. Additional arguments are ignored by the function. These arguments are expected to be pointers: to store the result of a scanf operation on a regular variable, its name should be preceded by the reference operator (&) (see example). On success, the function returns the number of items of the argument list successfully filled. This count can match the expected number of items or be less (even zero) due to a matching failure, a reading error, or the reach of the end-of-file. If a reading error happens or the end-of-file is reached while reading, the proper indicator is set (feof or ferror). And, if either happens before any data could be successfully read, EOF is returned. If an encoding error happens interpreting wide characters, the function sets errno to EILSEQ.

The getch() is a predefined non-standard function that is defined in conio.h header file. It is mostly used by the Dev C/C++, MS- DOS's compilers like Turbo C to hold the screen until the user passes a single value to exit from the console screen. It can also be used to read a single byte character or string from the keyboard and then print. It does not hold any parameters. It has no buffer area to store the input character in a program. The getch() function does not accept any parameter from the user. It returns the ASCII value of the key pressed by the user as an input. We use a getch() function in a C/ C++ program to hold the output screen for some time until the user passes a key from the keyboard to exit the console screen. Using getch() function, we can hide the input character provided by the users in the ATM PIN, password, etc. • getch() method pauses the Output Console until a key is pressed. • It does not use any buffer to store the input character. • The entered character is immediately returned without waiting for the enter key. • The entered character does not show up on the console. • The getch() method can be used to accept hidden inputs like password, ATM pin numbers, etc.

When we say Input, it means to feed some data into a program. An input can be given in the form of a file or from the command line. C programming provides a set of built-in functions to read the given input and feed it to the program as per requirement. When we say Output, it means to display some data on screen, printer, or in any file. C programming provides a set of built-in functions to output the data on the computer screen as well as to save it in text or binary files. C programming treats all the devices as files. So devices such as the display are addressed in the same way as files and the following three files are automatically opened when a program executes to provide access to the keyboard and screen. • Standard input: stdin(Keyboard). • Standard output: stdout(Screen). • Standard error: stderr(Your screen). The file pointers are the means to access the file for reading and writing purpose. This section explains how to read values from the screen and how to print the result on the screen.

The break is a keyword in C which is used to bring the program control out of the loop. The break statement is used inside loops or switch statement. The break statement breaks the loop one by one, i.e., in the case of nested loops, it breaks the inner loop first and then proceeds to outer loops. When a break statement is encountered inside a loop, the loop is immediately terminated and the program control resumes at the next statement following the loop. It can be used to terminate a case in the switch statement (covered in the next chapter). If you are using nested loops, the break statement will stop the execution of the innermost loop and start executing the next line of code after the block.

Function clrscr() clears the screen and moves the cursor to the upper left-hand corner of the screen. If you are using the GCC compiler, use system function to execute the clear/cls command. clrscr() function is also a non-standard function defined in "conio.h" header. This function is used to clear the console screen. It is often used at the beginning of the program (mostly after variable declaration but not necessarily) so that the console is clear for our output.

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.

The continue statement in C programming works somewhat like the break statement. Instead of forcing termination, it forces the next iteration of the loop to take place, skipping any code in between. For the for loop, continue statement causes the conditional test and increment portions of the loop to execute. For the while and do...while loops, continue statement causes the program control to pass to the conditional tests. The continue statement in C language is used to bring the program control to the beginning of the loop. The continue statement skips some lines of code inside the loop and continues with the next iteration. It is mainly used for a condition so that we can skip some code for a particular condition.

Write string to stdout. Writes the C string pointed by str to the standard output (stdout) and appends a newline character ('\n'). The function begins copying from the address specified (str) until it reaches the terminating null character ('\0'). This terminating null-character is not copied to the stream. Notice that puts not only differs from fputs in that it uses stdout as destination, but it also appends a newline character at the end automatically (which fputs does not). The puts() function is very much similar to printf() function. The puts() function is used to print the string on the console which is previously read by using gets() or scanf() function. The puts() function returns an integer value representing the number of characters being printed on the console. Since, it prints an additional newline character with the string, which moves the cursor to the new line on the console, the integer value returned by puts() will always be equal to the number of characters present in the string plus 1. C string to be printed. On success, a non-negative value is returned. On error, the function returns EOF and sets the error indicator (ferror).

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.

While loop is also known as a pre-tested loop. In general, a while loop allows a part of the code to be executed multiple times depending upon a given boolean condition. It can be viewed as a repeating if statement. The while loop is mostly used in the case where the number of iterations is not known in advance. The while loop evaluates the test expression inside the parentheses (). If test expression is true, statements inside the body of while loop are executed. Then, test expression is evaluated again. The process goes on until test expression is evaluated to false. If test expression is false, the loop terminates. • The while loop evaluates the testExpression inside the parentheses (). • If testExpression is true, statements inside the body of while loop are executed. Then, testExpression is evaluated again. • The process goes on until testExpression is evaluated to false. • If testExpression is false, the loop terminates (ends).

Writes the C string pointed by format to the standard output (stdout). If format includes format specifiers (subsequences beginning with %), the additional arguments following format are formatted and inserted in the resulting string replacing their respective specifiers. printf format string refers to a control parameter used by a class of functions in the input/output libraries of C programming language. The string is written in a simple template language: characters are usually copied literally into the function's output, but format specifiers, which start with a % character, indicate the location and method to translate a piece of data (such as a number) to characters. "printf" is the name of one of the main C output functions, and stands for "print formatted". printf format strings are complementary to scanf format strings, which provide formatted input (parsing). In both cases these provide simple functionality and fixed format compared to more sophisticated and flexible template engines or parsers, but are sufficient for many purposes. C string that contains the text to be written to stdout. It can optionally contain embedded format specifiers that are replaced by the values specified in subsequent additional arguments and formatted as requested. A format specifier follows this prototype: [see compatibility note below] %[flags][width][.precision][length]specifier Where the specifier character at the end is the most significant component, since it defines the type and the interpretation of its corresponding argument: a conversion format specifier. Signed decimal integer Unsigned decimal integer Unsigned octal Unsigned hexadecimal integer Unsigned hexadecimal integer (uppercase) Decimal floating point, lowercase Decimal floating point, uppercase Scientific notation (mantissa/exponent), lowercase Scientific notation (mantissa/exponent), uppercase Use the shortest representation: %e or %f Use the shortest representation: %E or %F Hexadecimal floating point, lowercase Hexadecimal floating point, uppercase Character String of characters Pointer address Nothing printed. The corresponding argument must be a pointer to a signed int. The number of characters written so far is stored in the pointed location. A % followed by another % character will write a single % to the stream. The format specifier can also contain sub-specifiers: flags, width, .precision and modifiers (in that order), which are optional and follow these specifications: one or more flags that modifies the conversion behavior (optional) Left-justify within the given field width; Right justification is the default (see width sub-specifier). Forces to preceed the result with a plus or minus sign (+ or -) even for positive numbers. By default, only negative numbers are preceded with a - sign. If no sign is going to be written, a blank space is inserted before the value. Used with o, x or X specifiers the value is preceeded with 0, 0x or 0X respectively for values different than zero. Used with a, A, e, E, f, F, g or G it forces the written output to contain a decimal point even if no more digits follow. By default, if no digits follow, no decimal point is written. Left-pads the number with zeroes (0) instead of spaces when padding is specified (see width sub-specifier). an optional * or integer value used to specify minimum width field. Minimum number of characters to be printed. If the value to be printed is shorter than this number, the result is padded with blank spaces. The value is not truncated even if the result is larger. The width is not specified in the format string, but as an additional integer value argument preceding the argument that has to be formatted. an optional field consisting of a . followed by * or integer or nothing to specify the precision. For integer specifiers (d, i, o, u, x, X): precision specifies the minimum number of digits to be written. If the value to be written is shorter than this number, the result is padded with leading zeros. The value is not truncated even if the result is longer. A precision of 0 means that no character is written for the value 0. For a, A, e, E, f and F specifiers: this is the number of digits to be printed after the decimal point (by default, this is 6). For g and G specifiers: This is the maximum number of significant digits to be printed. For s: this is the maximum number of characters to be printed. By default all characters are printed until the ending null character is encountered. If the period is specified without an explicit value for precision, 0 is assumed. The precision is not specified in the format string, but as an additional integer value argument preceding the argument that has to be formatted. an optional length modifier that specifies the size of the argument. Depending on the format string, the function may expect a sequence of additional arguments, each containing a value to be used to replace a format specifier in the format string (or a pointer to a storage location, for n). There should be at least as many of these arguments as the number of values specified in the format specifiers. Additional arguments are ignored by the function. If a writing error occurs, the error indicator (ferror) is set and a negative number is returned. If a multibyte character encoding error occurs while writing wide characters, errno is set to EILSEQ and a negative number is returned.

#include is a way of including a standard or user-defined file in the program and is mostly written at the beginning of any C/C++ program. This directive is read by the preprocessor and orders it to insert the content of a user-defined or system header file into the following program. These files are mainly imported from an outside source into the current program. The process of importing such files that might be system-defined or user-defined is known as File Inclusion. This type of preprocessor directive tells the compiler to include a file in the source code program. Here are the two types of file that can be included using #include: • Header File or Standard files: This is a file which contains C/C++ function declarations and macro definitions to be shared between several source files. Functions like the printf(), scanf(), cout, cin and various other input-output or other standard functions are contained within different header files. So to utilise those functions, the users need to import a few header files which define the required functions. • User-defined files: These files resembles the header files, except for the fact that they are written and defined by the user itself. This saves the user from writing a particular function multiple times. Once a user-defined file is written, it can be imported anywhere in the program using the #include preprocessor. Including using " ": When using the double quotes(" "), the preprocessor access the current directory in which the source "header_file" is located. This type is mainly used to access any header files of the user's program or user-defined files. Including using <>: While importing file using angular brackets(<>), the the preprocessor uses a predetermined directory path to access the file. It is mainly used to access system header files located in the standard system directories.

The if-else statement is used to perform two operations for a single condition. The if-else statement is an extension to the if statement using which, we can perform two different operations, i.e., one is for the correctness of that condition, and the other is for the incorrectness of the condition. Here, we must notice that if and else block cannot be executed simiulteneously. Using if-else statement is always preferable since it always invokes an otherwise case with every if condition. If the test expression is evaluated to true, • statements inside the body of if are executed. • statements inside the body of else are skipped from execution. If the test expression is evaluated to false, • statements inside the body of else are executed • statements inside the body of if are skipped from execution.

write a character to the console. The putch() function writes the character specified by the argument c to the console. putch() displays any alphanumeric characters to the standard output device. It displays only one character at a time. The putch() function is used for printing character to a screen at current cursor location. It is unformatted character output functions. It is defined in header file conio.h. character variable Function returns the character written. putch() is not standard function (defined in conio.h), which may not be available on many platforms.