Book Image

Learn C Programming

By : Jeff Szuhay
Book Image

Learn C Programming

By: Jeff Szuhay

Overview of this book

C is a powerful general-purpose programming language that is excellent for beginners to learn. This book will introduce you to computer programming and software development using C. If you're an experienced developer, this book will help you to become familiar with the C programming language. This C programming book takes you through basic programming concepts and shows you how to implement them in C. Throughout the book, you'll create and run programs that make use of one or more C concepts, such as program structure with functions, data types, and conditional statements. You'll also see how to use looping and iteration, arrays, pointers, and strings. As you make progress, you'll cover code documentation, testing and validation methods, basic input/output, and how to write complete programs in C. By the end of the book, you'll have developed basic programming skills in C, that you can apply to other programming languages and will develop a solid foundation for you to advance as a programmer.
Table of Contents (33 chapters)
1
Section 1: C Fundamentals
10
Section 2: Complex Data Types
19
Section 3: Memory Manipulation
22
Section 4: Input and Output
28
Section 5: Building Blocks for Larger Programs

Managing and accessing memory

C provides ways for a program to allocate, release, and access virtual memory in our physical address space; it is then up to the OS to manage the physical memory. The OS swaps virtual memory in and out of the physical memory as needed. In this way, our program is only concerned with the virtual memory address space.

C also provides some limits as to what memory can be accessed and how it can be manipulated. In Chapter 17, Understanding Memory Allocation and Lifetime, and Chapter 18, Using Dynamic Memory Allocation, we will explore some of the ways that C gives us limited control of our program's memory. In Chapter 20, Getting Input From the Command Line, and Chapter 23, Using File Input and File Output, we will explore how C allows us to get data dynamically from the user via the command line, as well as read and write data files. In each of these chapters, we will expand our conceptualization of memory and how it is used by our programs...