C is a general-purpose programming language created by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Laboratories in 1972.
It is a very popular language, despite being old. The main reason for its popularity is because it is a fundamental language in the field of computer science.
C is strongly associated with UNIX, as it was developed to write the UNIX operating system.
Procedural Language: C follows a procedural programming paradigm, where programs are organized as sequences of procedures or functions.
Mid-level Language: C combines low-level features for direct hardware manipulation with high-level constructs for program organization, making it a mid-level language.
Efficient: C provides low-level memory manipulation features like pointers, which allow for efficient memory management and performance optimization.
Portable: C programs can be compiled and run on various platforms with minimal changes, making it a portable language.
Static Typing: C is statically typed, meaning variable types are checked at compile time, which helps in detecting errors early in the development process.
Rich Standard Library: C comes with a standard library that provides a set of functions for common tasks such as I/O operations, string manipulation, and mathematical computations.
This tutorial will teach you the basics of C.
It is not necessary to have any prior programming experience.
A traditional "Hello, World!" program in C looks like this:
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
printf("Hello, World!\n");
return 0;
}
To compile a C program, you typically use a compiler like GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) or Clang. For example, to compile the above program named hello.c, you would run:
This command will generate an executable file named hello. You can then run it using:
System Programming: Operating systems, device drivers, and embedded systems are often written in C due to its efficiency and low-level features.
Application Software: C is used in various application domains such as database systems, compilers, interpreters, and network protocols.
Game Development: Many games are developed using C or C++ due to their performance and control over hardware resources.
Real-time Systems: C is suitable for real-time applications where precise timing and resource control are essential.
Overall, C remains a widely used and influential programming language, serving as the foundation for many other languages and technologies. Learning C provides a solid understanding of programming concepts and is still highly relevant in modern software development.