C Programming Language

C Programming Language

• Developed by Dennis Ritchie in 1972 at Bell Laboratories of AT&T Labs
• Initially developed as a system programming language to write the UNIX operating system
• Main features of the C language make it suitable for system programming, such as operating system or compiler development

Importance of Learning C

• Many later languages have borrowed syntax/features directly or indirectly from the C language
• Syntax of Java, PHP, JavaScript, and many other languages are mainly based on the C language
• C++ is nearly a superset of C language
• Learning C helps to understand the underlying architecture of the operating system, such as pointers and working with memory locations

Difference Between C and C++

• C++ was created to add OOPs concept into C language
• Both languages have very similar syntax but are different from each other
• There are many differences between C and C++ programming languages

Structure of a C Program

Components of a C Program

• Header Files Inclusion: The first component of a C program, which includes header files with extension .h that contain C function declarations and macro definitions
• Main Method Declaration: The next part of a C program, which declares the main() function, the entry point of a C program
• Body of Main Method: The body of a function in a C program, which refers to statements that are part of that function, enclosed in curly brackets
• Statement: Instructions given to the compiler, always terminated by a semicolon (;)
• Return Statement: The last part of any C function, which refers to the return values from a function, depending on the return type of the function