C Programming Language: Overview and Quiz

16 Questions

Who is the creator of the C programming language?

Dennis Ritchie

In which decade was C originally developed at Bell Labs?

1970s

Where has C found lasting use?

Operating systems

For what purpose was C originally developed at Bell Labs?

To construct utilities running on Unix

When was C standardized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)?

1989

Which book served as the de facto standard for the C language for many years?

The C Programming Language

What type of programming language is C?

Procedural

How are function parameters passed in C?

By value

What is used to group statements into blocks in C?

Brackets

Which of the following is a control flow primitive in C?

For

What type of data typing is used in C?

Static and weakly enforced

What does the 'typedef' keyword allow in C?

Creating aliases for existing types

Which type of aggregate data types allow related data elements to be accessed and assigned as a unit in C?

Struct

What does the 'union' structure allow in C?

Overlapping memory location for different data types

In C, what is used as secondary notation for array indexing?

'[]'

How are whole arrays assigned in C?

Whole arrays cannot be assigned

Study Notes

C Programming Language

C was created by Dennis Ritchie.
C was originally developed at Bell Labs in the 1970s.
C has found lasting use in operating systems, embedded systems, and microcontrollers.

Original Purpose and Standardization

C was originally developed at Bell Labs for developing the Unix operating system.
C was standardized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1989.

Language Characteristics

C is a general-purpose, procedural programming language.
Function parameters in C are passed by value.
Curly braces ( { } ) are used to group statements into blocks in C.
if and switch are control flow primitives in C.
C uses static, weak typing.
The typedef keyword allows creating aliases for existing data types in C.

Data Types

Arrays and structs are aggregate data types that allow related data elements to be accessed and assigned as a unit in C.
The union structure allows storing different types of data in the same memory location in C.
Pointer arithmetic is used as secondary notation for array indexing in C.
Whole arrays are assigned in C by using the = operator to copy the contents of one array to another.

C Programming Language Overview