Table of Contents for
Modern C Quick Syntax Reference: A Pocket Guide to the Language, APIs, and Library

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Cover image for bash Cookbook, 2nd Edition Modern C Quick Syntax Reference: A Pocket Guide to the Language, APIs, and Library by Mikael Olsson Published by Apress, 2018
  1. Navigation
  2. Cover
  3. Front Matter
  4. 1. Hello World
  5. 2. Compile and Run
  6. 3. Variables
  7. 4. Operators
  8. 5. Pointers
  9. 6. Arrays
  10. 7. Strings
  11. 8. Conditionals
  12. 9. Loops
  13. 10. Functions
  14. 11. Typedefs
  15. 12. Enums
  16. 13. Structs
  17. 14. Unions
  18. 15. Type Conversions
  19. 16. Storage Classes
  20. 17. Constants
  21. 18. Preprocessor
  22. 19. Memory Management
  23. 20. Input Handling
  24. 21. Headers
  25. 22. Strings and Numbers
  26. Back Matter
Mikael Olsson
Modern C Quick Syntax ReferenceA Pocket Guide to the Language, APIs, and Library2nd ed.
Mikael Olsson
Hammarland, Länsi-Suomi, Finland
ISBN 978-1-4842-4287-2e-ISBN 978-1-4842-4288-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-4288-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018967003
© Mikael Olsson 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
Trademarked names, logos, and images may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, logo, or image we use the names, logos, and images only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.
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Introduction

The C programming language is a general-purpose, middle-level language originally developed by Dennis M. Ritchie at Bell Labs. It was created over the period 1969 through 1973 for the development of the UNIX operating system, which had previously been written in assembly language. The name C was chosen because many of its features derived from an earlier language called B. Whereas the B language is no longer in common use, C became and still remains one of the most popular and influential programming languages in use today.

Although C is a general-purpose language, it is most often used for systems programming. This includes software that controls the computer hardware directly, such as drivers, operating systems, and software for embedded microprocessors. C can also be used for writing applications, which run on top of system software. However, it has largely been superseded in that domain by higher-level languages, such as C++, Objective-C, C#, and Java. The features of these and many other languages are heavily influenced by C, as can be seen in some of their names.

The development of C was a major milestone in computer science, as it was the first widely successful middle-level language for system development. The foremost reasons for its success were that the language was concise, fast, and powerful. It offered comparable speed to assembly with far improved usability. The high-level constructs of the language allowed programmers to focus mainly on the software’s design, while its low-level capabilities still provided direct access to the hardware when needed, as assembly had done. Furthermore, the language is relatively simple to understand, with few keywords and what many consider to be an elegant syntax.

Another major reason for the success of C was its portability. Unlike assembly, the C language is platform independent. A standards-compliant C program can therefore be compiled for a wide variety of computer systems with few changes to its source code. Moreover, the C compiler was small and easy to port to different CPU architectures, which together with the language’s popularity has made C compilers available on most computer systems.

C Versions

In 1978, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie produced the first publicly available description of C, now known as K&R C. This description was succeeded in 1989 when the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) provided a comprehensive definition of C known as ANSI C or C89. In the following year, the same specification was adopted as an international standard by the International Organization for Standardization and became known as ISO C90 or just C90. C has since undergone four more revisions by ISO (successively adopted by ANSI) with further language extensions, including C95, C99, C11, and most recently C18, which is the latest ANSI standard for the C programming language. The current C18 standard provided only clarifications to C11 and introduced no new language features.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1:​ Hello World 1
Creating a Project 1
Adding a Source File 2
Hello World 2
IntelliSense 3
Chapter 2:​ Compile and Run 5
Visual Studio Compilation 5
Console Compilation 6
Comments 7
Chapter 3:​ Variables 9
Data Types 9
Declaring Variables 10
Assigning Variables 10
Printing Variables 11
Integer Types 12
Signed and Unsigned 13
Sized Integers 15
Floating-Point Types 16
Literal Suffixes 16
Char Type 17
Bool Type 18
Variable Scope 18
Chapter 4:​ Operators 21
Arithmetic Operators 21
Assignment Operators 22
Increment and Decrement Operators 22
Comparison Operators 23
Logical Operators 23
Bitwise Operators 24
Operator Precedence 25
Chapter 5:​ Pointers 27
Creating Pointers 27
Dereferencing Pointers 27
Pointing to a Pointer 28
Null Pointer 29
Chapter 6:​ Arrays 31
Array Declaration and Allocation 31
Array Assignment 31
Multi-Dimensional Arrays 32
Arrays and Pointers 32
Array Size 33
Chapter 7:​ Strings 35
Escape Characters 36
String Functions 37
Chapter 8:​ Conditionals 39
If Statement 39
Switch Statement 40
Ternary Operator 41
Chapter 9:​ Loops 43
While Loop 43
Do-While Loop 43
For Loop 44
Break and Continue 45
Goto Statement 45
Chapter 10:​ Functions 47
Defining Functions 47
Calling Functions 47
Function Parameters 48
Void Parameter 48
Return Statement 49
Forward Declaration 50
Variable Parameter Lists 51
Pass by Value 52
Pass by Address 53
Return by Value or Address 53
Inline Functions 54
Chapter 11:​ Typedefs 57
Chapter 12:​ Enums 59
Enum Example 60
Enum Constant Values 60
Enum Conversions 61
Enum Scope 61
Chapter 13:​ Structs 63
Struct Objects 63
Member Access 64
Struct Pointers 65
Bit Fields 66
Chapter 14:​ Unions 69
Chapter 15:​ Type Conversions 71
Implicit Conversions 71
Explicit Conversions 72
Chapter 16:​ Storage Classes 73
Auto 73
Register 73
External 74
Static 75
Volatile 76
Chapter 17:​ Constants 79
Constant Variables 79
Constant Pointers 79
Constant Parameters 80
Constant Guideline 81
Chapter 18:​ Preprocessor 83
Including Source Files 84
Define 84
Undefine 85
Predefined Macros 85
Macro Functions 86
Conditional Compilation 87
Compile if Defined 88
Error and Warning 89
Line 89
Pragma 89
Chapter 19:​ Memory Management 91
Malloc 91
Free 92
Realloc 93
Calloc 94
Void Pointers 95
Function Pointers 96
Chapter 20:​ Input Handling 99
Keyboard Input 100
File Input and Output 102
Error Handling 103
Chapter 21:​ Headers 105
Why Use Headers 105
What to Include in Headers 106
Include Guards 108
Chapter 22:​ Strings and Numbers 109
String Conversion 109
Number Conversion 112
Index 113

About the Author and About the Technical Reviewer

About the Author

Mikael Olsson

is a professional web entrepreneur, programmer, and author. He works for an R&D company in Finland where he specializes in software development. In his spare time, he writes books and creates websites that summarize various fields of interest. The books he writes are focused on teaching their subject in the most efficient way possible, by explaining only what is relevant and practical without any unnecessary repetition or theory. The portal to his online businesses and other websites is Siforia.com .

 

About the Technical Reviewer

Michael Thomas
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has worked in software development for more than 20 years as an individual contributor, team lead, program manager, and vice president of engineering. Michael has more than 10 years of experience working with mobile devices. His current focus is in the medical sector, using mobile devices to accelerate information transfer between patients and health care providers.