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

Exploring the function block

The function block is where the work of the function happens.

Within the function block are one or more statements. In our Hello, world! main function, there are only two statements. In the following program, main.c, there is only one—the return 0; statement:

int main()  {
return 0;
}

While there is no ideal size, large or small, for the number of statements in a function block, typically, functions that are no longer than either the number of lines in a terminal, 25 lines, or a printed page, say 60 lines, are preferable to much longer functions. TheGoldilocks targetgiven multiple options, the one Goldilocks in the fairy taleGoldilocks and the Three Bearswould have chosen—in this case, would be somewhere between 25 and 50 lines. Shorter functions are most often preferred over much longer ones.

In some cases, however, longer functions are warranted. Rarely, if ever, are they considered good programming...