Table of Contents:
This memorandum is a tutorial to make learning C as painless as possible. The first part concentrates on the central
features of C; the second part discusses those parts of the language which are useful (usually for getting more efficient and
smaller code) but which are not necessary for the new user. This is not a reference manual. Details and
special cases will be skipped ruthlessly, and no attempt will be made to cover every language feature. The order of
presentation is hopefully pedagogical instead of logical. Users who would like the full story should consult the "C
Reference Manual" by D. M. Ritchie [1], which should be read for details
anyway. Runtime support is described in [2] and [3]; you will have to read one of these to learn how to compile and run a C program.
Note: Since 1978 the reference for C is the book ``The C Programming
Language´´ by Kernighan and Ritchie.
We will assume that you are familiar with the mysteries of creating files, text editing, and the like in the operating system you run on, and that you have programmed in some language before.
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
printf("hello, world");
return 0;
}
A C program consists of one or more functions, which are similar to the functions and subroutines of a Fortran program or the
procedures of PL/I, and perhaps some external data definitions. main is such a function, and in fact all C
programs must have a main. Execution of the program begins at the first statement of main.
main will usually invoke other functions to perform its job, some coming from the same program, and others from
libraries.
One method of communicating data between functions is by arguments. The parentheses following the function name surround
the argument list; here main is a function of no arguments, indicated by ( ). The {} enclose the statements of
the function. Individual statements end with a semicolon but are otherwise free-format.
printf is a library function which will format and print output on the terminal (unless some other destination is
specified). In this case it prints
hello, world
A function is invoked by naming it, followed by a list of arguments in parentheses. There is no CALL statement as in
Fortran or PL/I.
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int a, b, c, sum;
a = 1;
b = 2;
c = 3;
sum = a + b + c;
printf("sum is %d\n", sum);
return 0;
}
Arithmetic and the assignment statements are much the same as in Fortran (except for the semicolons) or PL/I. The format of
C programs is quite free. We can put several statements on a line if we want, or we can split a statement among several
lines if it seems desirable. The split may be between any of the operators or variables, but not in the middle of
a name or operator. As a matter of style, spaces, tabs, and newlines should be used freely to enhance readability.
C has four fundamental types of variables:
There are also arrays and structures of these basic types, pointers to them and functions that return them, all of which we will meet shortly.
All variables in a C program must be declared, although this can sometimes be done implicitly by context. Declarations must precede executable statements. The declaration
int a, b, c, sum;
declares a, b, c, and sum to be integers.
Variable names have one to thirtyone characters, chosen from A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and _, and start with a non-digit.
Stylistically, it's much better to use only a single case and give functions and external variables names that are unique in the
first six characters. (Function and external variable names are used by various assemblers, some of which are limited in
the size and case of identifiers they can handle.) Furthermore, keywords and library functions may only be recognized in one
case.
0777
is an octal constant, with decimal value 511.A ``character´´ is one byte (an inherently machine-dependent concept). Most often this is expressed as a character constant, which is one character enclosed in single quotes. However, it may be any quantity that fits in a byte, as in flags below:
char quest, newline, flags;
quest = '?';
newline = '\n';
flags = 077;
The sequence '\n' is C notation for ``newline character´´, which, when printed, skips the terminal to the beginning
of the next line. Notice that '\n' represents only a single character. There are several other ``escapes´´
like '\n' for representing hard-to-get or invisible characters, such as '\t' for tab, '\b' for backspace and '\\' for the
backslash itself.
float and double constants are discussed in section 26.
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int c;
c = getchar();
putchar(c);
return 0;
}
getchar and putchar are the basic I/O library functions in C. getchar fetches one
character from the standard input (usually the terminal) each time it is called, and returns that character as the value of the
function. When it reaches the end of whatever file it is reading, it returns the control symbol EOF. We will see how
to use this very shortly.
putchar puts one character out on the standard output (usually the terminal) each time it is called. So the
program above reads one character and writes it back out. By itself, this isn't very interesting, but observe that if we
put a loop around this, and add a test for end of file, we have a complete program for copying one file to another.
printf is a more complicated function for producing formatted output. We will talk about only the simplest
use of it. Basically, printf uses its first argument as formatting information, and any successive arguments
as variables to be output. Thus
printf("hello, world\n");
is the simplest use. The string "hello, world\n´´ is printed out. No formatting information, no
variables, so the string is dumped out verbatim. The newline is necessary to put this out on a line by itself. (The
construction
"hello, world\n"
is really an array of chars. More about this shortly.)
More complicated, if sum is 6,
printf("sum is %d\n", sum);
prints
sum is 6
Within the first argument of printf, the characters "%d" signify that the next argument in the argument list is to
be printed as a base 10 number.
Other useful formatting commands are "%c" to print out a single character, "%s" to print out an entire string, and "%o" to print a number as octal instead of decimal (no leading zero). For example,
n = 511;
printf("What is the value of %d in octal?", n);
printf("%s! %d decimal is %o octal\n", "Right", n, n);
prints
What is the value of 511 in octal? Right! 511 decimal
is 777 octal
Notice that there is no newline at the end of the first output line. Successive calls to printf (and/or
putchar, for that matter) simply put out characters. No newlines are printed unless you ask for them.
Similarly, on input, characters are read one at a time as you ask for them. Each line is generally terminated by a newline
(\n), but there is otherwise no concept of record.
c = getchar();
if ('?' == c)
printf("why did you type a question mark?\n");
The simplest form of if is
if (expression) statement
The condition to be tested is any expression enclosed in parentheses. It is followed by a statement. The expression is evaluated, and if its value is non-zero, the statement is executed. There's an optional else clause, to be described soon.
The character sequence `==' is one of the relational operators in C; here is the complete set:
== equal to (.EQ. to Fortraners)
!= not equal to
> greater than
< less than
>= greater than or equal to
<= less than or equal to
The value of ``expression relation expression´´ is 1 if the relation is true, and 0 if false. Don't
forget that the equality test is `=='; a single `=' causes an assignment, not a test, and invariably leads to disaster.
Note: In a test for equal between a constant and a variable, the constant shall be
written first. The compiler will report an error message for if ('?' = c) but not
for if (c = '?').
Tests can be combined with the operators `&&' (AND), `||' (OR), and `!' (NOT). For example, we can test whether a character is blank or tab or newline with
if (' '==c || '\t'==c || '\n'==c) ...
C guarantees that `&&' and `||' are evaluated left to right -- we shall soon see cases where this matters.
One of the nice things about C is that the statement part of an if can be made
arbitrarily complicated by enclosing a set of statements in {}. As a simple example, suppose we want to ensure that
a is bigger than b, as part of a sort routine. The interchange of a and
b takes three statements in C, grouped together by {}:
if (a < b) {
t = a;
a = b;
b = t;
}
As a general rule in C, anywhere you can use a simple statement, you can use any compound statement, which is just a number of simple or compound ones enclosed in {}. There is no semicolon after the } of a compound statement, but there is a semicolon after the last non-compound statement inside the {}.
The ability to replace single statements by complex ones at will is one feature that makes C much more pleasant to use than Fortran. Logic (like the exchange in the previous example) which would require several GOTO's and labels in Fortran can and should be done in C without any, using compound statements.
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int c;
while ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
putchar(c);
return 0;
}
The while statement is a loop, whose general form is
while (expression) statement
Its meaning iswhile is executed, printing the character. The
while then repeats. When the input character is finally an EOF, the while terminates, and so does
main.Notice that we used an assignment statement
c = getchar()
within an expression. This is a handy notational shortcut which often produces clearer code. (In fact it is often the
only way to write the code cleanly. As an exercise, rewrite the file-copy without using an assignment inside an
expression.) It works because an assignment statement has a value, just as any other expression does. Its value is the
value of the right hand side. This also implies that we can use multiple assignments like
x = y = z = 0;
Evaluation goes from right to left.
By the way, the extra parentheses in the assignment statement within the conditional were really necessary: if we had said
c = getchar() != EOF
c would be set to 0 or 1 depending on whether the character fetched was an end of file or not. This is because
in the absence of parentheses the assignment operator `=' is evaluated after the relational operator `!='. When in doubt,
or even if not, parenthesize.
We can also copy the input to the output by concatenating with && the calls of getchar and putchar:
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int c;
while ((c = getchar()) != EOF && putchar(c)) ;
return 0;
}
What statement is being repeated? None, or technically, the null statement, because all the work is really done within the test
part of the while.
x = a % b;
sets x to the remainder after a is divided by b (i.e., a mod b). The results are machine
dependent unless a and b are both positive.
In arithmetic, char variables can usually be treated like int variables. Arithmetic on
characters is quite legal, and often makes sense:
c = c + 'A' - 'a';
converts a single lower case ascii character stored in c to upper case, making use of the fact that corresponding
ascii letters are a fixed distance apart. The rule governing this arithmetic is that all chars are converted to
int before the arithmetic is done. Beware that conversion may involve sign-extension if the leftmost bit of a
character is 1, the resulting integer might be negative. (This doesn't happen with genuine characters on any current
machine.)So to convert a file into lower case:
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int c;
while ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
if ('A' <= c && c <= 'Z')
putchar(c + 'a' - 'A');
else
putchar(c);
return 0;
}
Characters have different sizes on different machines. Further, this code won't work on an IBM machine, because the letters
in the ebcdic alphabet are not contiguous.
else after an if. The most general form of if is
if (expression) statement1 else statement2
the else part is optional, but often useful. The canonical example sets x to the minimum of
a and b:
if (a < b)
x = a;
else
x = b;
Observe that there's a semicolon after x=a.
C provides an alternate form of conditional which is often more concise. It is called the ``conditional expression´´ because it is a conditional which actually has a value and can be used anywhere an expression can. The value of
a<b ? a : b;
is a if a is less than b; it is b otherwise. In general, the form
expr1 ? expr2 : expr3
means ``evaluate expr1. If it is not zero, the value of the whole thing is expr2; otherwise the
value is expr3.´´
To set x to the minimum of a and b, then:
x = (a<b ? a : b);
The parentheses aren't necessary because `?:' is evaluated before `=', but safety first.
Going a step further, we could write the loop in the lower-case program as
while ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
putchar(('A' <= c && c <= 'Z') ? c - 'A' + 'a' : c);
If's and else's can be used to construct logic that branches one of several ways and then rejoins, a common programming structure, in this way:
if (...)
{...}
else if (...)
{...}
else if (...)
{...}
else
{...}
The conditions are tested in order, and exactly one block is executed; either the first one whose if is satisfied, or the one for
the last else. When this block is finished, the next statement executed is the one after the last else.
If no action is to be taken for the ``default´´ case, omit the last else.
For example, to count letters, digits and others in a file, we could write
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int let, dig, other, c;
let = dig = other = 0;
while ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
if (('A' <= c && c <= 'Z') || ('a' <= c && c <= 'z'))
let++;
else if ('0' <= c && c <= '9')
dig++;
else
other++;
printf("%d letters, %d digits, %d others\n", let, dig, other);
return 0;
}
The `++' operator means ``increment by 1´´; we will get to it in the next section.
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int c, n;
n = 0;
while ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
if ('\n' == c)
n++;
printf("%d lines\n", n);
return 0;
}
n++ is equivalent to n=n+1 but clearer, particularly when n is a complicated
expression. `++' and `--' can be applied only to int's and char's (and pointers which we haven't got
to yet).
The unusual feature of `++' and `--' is that they can be used either before or after a variable. The value of
++k is the value of k after it has been incremented. The value of k++ is
k before it is incremented. Suppose k is 5. Then
x = ++k;
increments k to 6 and then sets x to the resulting value, i.e., to 6. But
x = k++;
first sets x to to 5, and then increments k to 6. The incrementing effect of
++k and k++ is the same, but their values are respectively 5 and 6. We shall soon see examples
where both of these uses are important.
int x[10];
The square brackets mean subscripting; parentheses are used only for function references. Array indexes begin at zero, so
the elements of x are
x[0], x[1], x[2], ..., x[9]
If an array has n elements, the largest subscript is n-1.
Multiple-dimension arrays are provided, though not much used above two dimensions. The declaration and use look like
int name[10][20];
n = name[i+j][1] + name[k][2];
Subscripts can be arbitrary integer expressions. Multi-dimension arrays are stored by row (opposite to Fortran), so the
rightmost subscript varies fastest; name has 10 rows and 20 columns.
Here is a program which reads a line, stores it in a buffer, and prints its length (excluding the newline at the end).
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int n, c;
char line[100];
n = 0;
while ((c = getchar()) != '\n') {
if (n < sizeof line)
line[n] = c;
n++;
}
printf("length = %d\n", n);
return 0;
}
Note: The operator sizeof returns the array size in elements, in the program above,
sizeof line is 100.
As a more complicated problem, suppose we want to print the count for each line in the input, still storing the first 100
characters of each line. Try it as an exercise before looking at the solution:
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int n, c;
char line[100];
n = 0;
while ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
if ('\n' == c) {
printf("length = %d\n", n);
n = 0;
} else {
if (n < sizeof line)
line[n] = c;
n++;
}
return 0;
}
line[] in the example above. By convention in
C, the last character in a character array should be a '\0' because most programs that manipulate character arrays expect
it. For example, printf uses the '\0' to detect the end of a character array when printing it out with a `%s'.
We can copy a character array s into another t like
this:
i = 0;
while ((t[i]=s[i]) != '\0')
i++;
Most of the time we have to put in our own '\0' at the end of a string; if we want to print the line with printf,
it's necessary. This code prints the character count before the line:
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
int n;
char line[100];
n = 0;
while ((line[n++] = getchar()) != '\n' && n < sizeof line - 1) ;
line[n] = '\0';
printf("%d:\t%s", n, line);
}
Here we increment n in the subscript itself, but only after the previous value has been used. The character is
read, placed in line[n], and only then n is incremented.There is one place and one place only where C puts in the '\0' at the end of a character array for you, and that is in the construction
"stuff between double quotes"
The compiler puts a '\0' at the end automatically. Text enclosed in double quotes is called a string; its
properties are precisely those of an (initialized) array of characters.
for statement is a somewhat generalized while that lets us put the initialization and increment
parts of a loop into a single statement along with the test. The general form of the for is
for (initialization; expression; increment)
statement
The meaning is exactly
initialization;
while (expression) {
statement
increment;
}
Thus, the following code does the same array copy as the example in the previous section:
for (i=0; (t[i]=s[i]) != '\0'; i++) ;
This slightly more ornate example adds up the elements of an array:
sum = 0;
for (i=0; i<n; i++)
sum = sum + array[i];
In the for statement, the initialization can be left out if you want, but the semicolon has to be there. The increment
is also optional. It is not followed by a semicolon. The second clause, the test, works the same way as in
the while: if the expression is true (not zero) do another loop, otherwise get on with the next statement. As
with the while, the for loop may be done zero times. If the expression is left out, it is taken to be always
true, so
for (;;) ...
and
while (1) ...
are both infinite loops.
You might ask why we use a for since it's so much like a while. (You might also ask why we use
a while because...) The for is usually preferable because it keeps the code where it's
used and sometimes eliminates the need for compound statements, as in this code that zeros a two-dimensional array:
for (i=0; i<n; i++)
for (j=0; j<m; j++)
array[i][j] = 0;
#include <stdio.h>
void count(int buf[], int size) {
int i, c;
for (i = 0; i <= size; i++)
buf[i] = 0; /* set buf to zero */
while ((c = getchar()) != EOF) { /* read til eof */
if (c > size || c < 0)
c = size; /* fix illegal input */
buf[c]++;
}
return;
}
int main() {
int hist[129]; /* 128 legal chars + 1 illegal group */
...
count(hist, 128); /* count the letters into hist */
printf( ... ); /* comments look like this; use them */
... /* anywhere blanks, tabs or newlines could appear */
return 0;
}
We have already seen many examples of calling a function, so let us concentrate on how to define one. Since
count has two arguments, we need to declare them, as shown, giving their types, and in the case of buf,
the fact that it is an array. The declarations of arguments is done in the argument list. There is no need to specify
the size of the array buf, for it is defined outside of count.The return statement simply says to go back to the calling routine. In fact, we could have omitted it, since a return is implied at the end of a function.
What if we wanted count to return a value, say the number of characters read? The return statement allows
for this too:
int i, c, nchar;
nchar = 0;
...
while ((c=getchar()) != EOF) {
if (c > size || c < 0)
c = size;
buf[c]++;
nchar++;
}
return nchar;
Any expression can appear after return. Here is a function to compute the minimum of two integers:
int min(int a, int b) {
return a < b ? a : b;
}
To copy a character array, we could write the function
void strcopy(char s2[], char s1[]) { /* copies s1 to s2 */
int i;
for (i = 0; (s2[i] = s1[i]) != '\0'; i++) ;
}
Note: If s2 points to a string that is longer then the size of the char array where s1
points to, a memory corrution happens. A safe version of strcopy() has as additional argument the size of the destination array.
The last statement in strcopy_() ensures that all strings are '\0' terminated.
void strcopy_s(char s2[], int size, char s1[]) { /* copies s1 to s2 */
int i;
for (i = 0; i < size && (s2[i] = s1[i]) != '\0'; i++) ;
s2[size - 1] = '\0';
}
As is often the case, all the work is done by the assignment statement embedded in the test part of the for. Again, the
declarations of the arguments s1 and s2 omit the sizes, because they don't matter to strcopy. (In the section on pointers, we will see a more efficient way to do a string copy.)
There is a subtlety in function usage which can trap the unsuspecting Fortran programmer. Simple variables (not arrays) are passed in C by ``call by value´´, which means that the called function is given a copy of its arguments, and doesn't know their addresses. This makes it impossible to change the value of one of the actual input arguments.
There are two ways out of this dilemma. One is to make special arrangements to pass to the function the address of a variable instead of its value. The other is to make the variable a global or external variable, which is known to each function by its name. We will discuss both possibilities in the next few sections.
void f() {
int x;
...
}
int g() {
int x;
...
}
each x is local to its own routine -- the x in f is unrelated to the
x in g. (Local variables are also called ``automatic´´.) Furthermore each local
variable in a routine appears only when the function is called, and disappears when the function is exited. Local
variables have no memory from one call to the next and must be explicitly initialized upon each entry. (There is a
static storage class for making local variables with memory; we won't discuss it.)
As opposed to local variables, external variables are defined external to all functions, and are (potentially) available to all functions. External storage always remains in existence. To make variables external we have to define them external to all functions, and, wherever we want to use them, make a declaration.
void count() {
extern int nchar, hist[];
int i, c;
...
}
int main() {
extern int nchar, hist[];
...
count();
...
}
int hist[129]; /* space for histogram */
int nchar; /* character count */
Roughly speaking, any function that wishes to access an external variable must contain an extern declaration for it. The
declaration is the same as others, except for the added keyword extern. Furthermore, there must somewhere be a
definition of the external variables external to all functions.
External variables can be initialized; they are set to zero if not explicitly initialized. In its simplest form, initialization is done by putting the value (which must be a constant) after the definition:
int nchar = 0;
char flag = 'f';
etc.
This is discussed further in a later section.
This ends our discussion of what might be called the central core of C. You now have enough to write quite substantial C programs, and it would probably be a good idea if you paused long enough to do so. The rest of this tutorial will describe some more ornate constructions, useful but not essential.
int a, b;
b = (int)&a;
puts the address of a into b. We can't do much with it except print it or pass it to some other
routine, because we haven't given b the right kind of declaration.b is indeed a pointer to an integer, we're in good shape:
int a, *b, c;
b = &a;
c = *b;
b contains the address of a and `c = *b´ means to use the value in b as an address,
i.e., as a pointer. The effect is that we get back the contents of a, albeit rather indirectly. (It's
always the case that `*&x' is the same as x if x has an address.)
The most frequent use of pointers in C is for walking efficiently along arrays. In fact, in the implementation of an array, the array name represents the address of the zeroth element of the array, so you can't use it on the left side of an expression. (You can't change the address of something by assigning to it.) If we say
char *y;
char x[100];
y is of type pointer to character (although it doesn't yet point anywhere). We can make y point
to an element of x by either of
y = &x[0];
y = x;
Since x is the address of x[0] this is legal and consistent.
Now `*y´ gives x[0]. More importantly,
*(y+1) gives x[1]
*(y+i) gives x[i]
and the sequence
y = &x[0];
y++;
leaves y pointing at x[1].
Let's use pointers in a function length that computes how long a character array is. Remember that by convention all character arrays are terminated with a '\0'. (And if they aren't, this program will blow up inevitably.) The old way:
int length(char s[]) {
int n;
for (n=0; s[n] != '\0'; )
n++;
return n;
}
Rewriting with pointers gives
length(char *s) {
int n;
for (n=0; *s != '\0'; s++)
n++;
return n;
}
You can now see why we have to say what kind of thing s points to -- if we're to increment it with s++
we have to increment it by the right amount.
The pointer version is more efficient (this is almost always true) but even more compact is
for (n=0; *s++ != '\0'; n++) ;
The `*s´ returns a character; the `++' increments the pointer so we'll get the next character next time around. As
you can see, as we make things more efficient, we also make them less clear. But `*s++' is an idiom so common that you have
to know it.
length_s(char *s, int size) {
int n;
for (n = 0; n < size; n++)
if ('\0' == *s++)
return n;
return n;
}
int main() {
char buf[100];
int len;
...
len = length_s(buf, sizeof buf);
...
}
Going a step further, here's our function strcopy that copies a character array s to another t.
void strcopy(char *t, char *s) {
while(*t++ = *s++);
}
We have omitted the test against '\0', because '\0' is identically zero; you will often see the code this way.
void strcopy_s(char *t, int size, char *s) {
t[--size] = '\0';
while(--size >= 0 && (*t++ = *s++)) ;
}
For arguments to a function, and there only, the declarations
char s[];
char *s;
are equivalent -- a pointer to a type, or an array of unspecified size of that type, are the same thing.
If this all seems mysterious, copy these forms until they become second nature. You don't often need anything more complicated.
As we said before, C is a ``call by value´´ language: when you make a function call like f(x), the value
of x is passed, not its address. So there's no way to alter x from inside
f. If x is an array (char x[10]) this isn't a problem, because x is an
address anyway, and you're not trying to change it, just what it addresses. This is why strcopy works as it
does. And it's convenient not to have to worry about making temporary copies of the input arguments.
But what if x is a scalar and you do want to change it? In that case, you have to pass the address
of x to f, and then use it as a pointer. Thus for example, to interchange two integers, we must
write
void flip(int *x, int *y) {
int temp;
temp = *x;
*x = *y;
*y = temp;
}
and to call flip, we have to pass the addresses of the variables:
flip (&a, &b);
argc and an array of character strings argv containing the arguments. Manipulating these
arguments is one of the most common uses of multiple levels of pointers (``pointer to pointer to ...´´). By
convention, argc is greater than zero; the first s argument (in argv[0]) is the command name itself.
Here is a program that simply echoes its arguments.
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
int i;
for (i=1; i < argc; i++ )
printf("%s\n", argv[i]);
return 0;
}
Step by step: main is called with two arguments, the argument count and the array of arguments.
argv is a pointer to an array, whose individual elements are pointers to arrays of characters. The zeroth
argument is the name of the command itself, so we start to print with the first argument, until we've printed them all.
Each argv[i] is a character array, so we use a `%s´ in the printf.
You will sometimes see the declaration of argv written as
char **argv;
which is equivalent. But we can't use char argv[][], because both dimensions are variable and there would be
no way to figure out how big the array is.
Here's a bigger example using argc and argv. A common convention in C programs is that if the
first argument is `-', it indicates a flag of some sort. For example, suppose we want a program to be callable as
prog -abc arg1 arg2 ...
where the `-' argument is optional; if it is present, it may be followed by any combination of a, b, and c.
main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
...
aflag = bflag = cflag = 0;
if (argc > 1 && '-' == argv[1][0]) {
for (i=1; (c=argv[1][i]) != '\0'; i++)
if ('a'==c)
aflag++;
else if ('b'==c)
bflag++;
else if ('c'==c)
cflag++;
else
printf("%c?\n", c);
--argc;
++argv;
}
...
There are several things worth noticing about this code. First, there is a real need for the left-to-right evaluation
that && provides; we don't want to look at argv[1] unless we know it's there. Second, the
statements
--argc;
++argv;
let us march along the argument list by one position, so we can skip over the flag argument as if it had never existed; the rest
of the program is independent of whether or not there was a flag argument. This only works because argv is a
pointer which can be incremented.
if ('a'==c) ...
else if ('b'==c) ...
else if ('c'==c) ...
else ...
testing a value against a series of constants, the switch statement is often clearer and usually gives better code. Use it
like this:
switch( c ) {
case 'a':
aflag++;
break;
case 'b':
bflag++;
break;
case 'c':
cflag++;
break;
default:
printf("%c?\n", c);
break;
}
The case statements label the various actions we want; default gets done if none of the other cases are
satisfied. (A default is optional; if it isn't there, and none of the cases match, you just fall out the
bottom.)
The break statement in this example is new. It is there because the cases are just labels, and after you do one of them, you fall through to the next unless you take some explicit action to escape. This is a mixed blessing. On the positive side, you can have multiple cases on a single statement; we might want to allow both upper and lower
case 'a': case 'A': ...
case 'b': case 'B': ...
etc.
But what if we just want to get out after doing case `a´ ? We could get out of a case of the
switch with a label and a goto, but this is really ugly. The break statement lets us exit without
either goto or label.
switch( c ) {
case 'a':
aflag++;
break;
case 'b':
bflag++;
break;
...
}
/* the break statements get us here directly */
The break statement also works in for and while statements; it causes an immediate exit from the loop.
The continue statement works only inside for's and while's; it causes the next iteration of
the loop to be started. This means it goes to the increment part of the for and the test part of the
while. We could have used a continue in our example to get on with the next iteration of the for,
but it seems clearer to use break instead.
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
We can make a structure out of this quite easily. We first tell C what the structure will look like, that is, what kinds of things it contains; after that we can actually reserve storage for it, either in the same statement or separately. The simplest thing is to define it and allocate storage all at once:
struct {
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
} sym;
This defines sym to be a structure with the specified shape; id, line, type and
usage are members of the structure. The way we refer to any particular member of the structure is
structure-name . member
as in
sym.type = 077;
if (0 == sym.usage) ...
while (sym.id[j++]) ...
etc.
Although the names of structure members never stand alone, they still have to be unique; there can't be another id or usage in
some other structure.
So far we haven't gained much. The advantages of structures start to come when we have arrays of structures, or when we want to pass complicated data layouts between functions. Suppose we wanted to make a symbol table for up to 100 identifiers. We could extend our definitions like
char id[100][10];
int line[100];
char type[100];
int usage[100];
but a structure lets us rearrange this spread-out information so all the data about a single identifer is collected into one
lump:
struct {
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
} sym[100];
This makes sym an array of structures; each array element has the specified shape. Now we can refer to members as
sym[i].usage++; /* increment usage of i-th identifier */
for (j=0; sym[i].id[j++] != '\0'; ) ...
etc.
Thus to print a list of all identifiers that haven't been used, together with their line number,
for (i=0; i<nsym; i++ )
if (0 == sym[i].usage)
printf("%d\t%s\n", sym[i].line, sym[i].id);
Suppose we now want to write a function lookup(name) which will tell us if name already exists in sym, by giving
its index, or that it doesn't, by returning a -1. We can't pass a structure to a function directly; we have to either
define it externally, or pass a pointer to it. Let's try the first way first.
int nsym 0; /* current length of symbol table */
struct {
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
} sym[100]; /* symbol table */
int lookup(char *s) {
int i;
extern struct {
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
} sym[];
for (i=0; i<nsym; i++ )
if (compar(s, sym[i].id) > 0 )
return i;
return -1;
}
int compar(char *s1, char *s2) { /* return 1 if s1==s2, 0 otherwise */
while (*s1++ == *s2 )
if ('\0' == *s2++)
return 1;
return 0;
}
int main() {
...
if ((index = lookup(newname)) >= 0 )
sym[index].usage++; /* already there ... */
else
install(newname, newline, newtype);
...
}
The declaration of the structure in lookup isn't needed if the external definition precedes its use in the same source file, as we shall see in a moment.
Now what if we want to use pointers?
struct symtag {
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
} sym[100], *psym;
psym = &sym[0]; /* or p = sym; */
This makes psym a pointer to our kind of structure (the symbol table), then initializes it to point to the first
element of sym.
Notice that we added something after the word struct: a ``tag´´ called symtag. This puts a name on our structure definition so we can refer to it later without repeating the definition. It's not necessary but useful. In fact we could have said
struct symtag {
... structure definition
};
which wouldn't have assigned any storage at all, and then said
struct symtag sym[100];
struct symtag *psym;
which would define the array and the pointer. This could be condensed further, to
struct symtag sym[100], *psym;
The way we actually refer to an member of a structure by a pointer is like this:
ptr -> structure-member
The symbol `->' means we're pointing at a member of a structure; `->' is only used in that context. ptr
is a pointer to the (base of) a structure that contains the structure member. The expression ptr->structure-member
refers to the indicated member of the pointed-to structure. Thus we have constructions like:
psym->type = 1;
psym->id[0] = 'a';
and so on.
For more complicated pointer expressions, it's wise to use parentheses to make it clear who goes with what. For example,
struct { int x, *y; } *p;
p->x++ increments x
++p->x so does this!
(++p)->x increments p before getting x
*p->y++ uses y as a pointer, then increments it
*(p->y)++ so does this
*(p++)->y uses y as a pointer, then increments p
The way to remember these is that ->, . (dot), ( ) and [ ] bind very tightly. An expression involving one of these is
treated as a unit. p->x, a[i], y.x and f(b) are names exactly as
abc is.
If p is a pointer to a structure, any arithmetic on p takes into account the actual size of the
structure. For instance, p++ increments p by the correct amount to get the next element of the
array of structures. But don't assume that the size of a structure is the sum of the sizes of its members -- because of
alignments of different sized objects, there may be ``holes´´ in a structure.
Enough theory. Here is the lookup example, this time with pointers.
struct symtag {
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
} sym[100];
main() {
struct symtag *lookup();
struct symtag *psym;
...
if ((psym = lookup(newname)) ) /* non-zero pointer */
psym -> usage++; /* means already there */
else
install(newname, newline, newtype);
...
}
struct symtag *lookup(s)
char *s; {
struct symtag *p;
for (p=sym; p < &sym[nsym]; p++ )
if (compar(s, p->id) > 0)
return p;
return 0;
}
The function compar doesn't change: `p->id' refers to a string.
In main we test the pointer returned by lookup against zero, relying on the fact that a pointer is
by definition never zero when it really points at something. The other pointer manipulations are trivial.
The only complexity is the set of lines like
struct symtag *lookup();
This brings us to an area that we will treat only hurriedly; the question of function types. So far, all of our functions
have returned integers (or characters, which are much the same). What do we do when the function returns something else,
like a pointer to a structure? The rule is that any function that doesn't return an int has to say explicitly
what it does return. The type information goes before the function name (which can make the name hard to see).
Examples:
char f(a)
int a; {
...
}
int *g() { ... }
struct symtag *lookup(s) char *s; { ... }
The function f returns a character, g returns a pointer to an integer, and lookup returns
a pointer to a structure that looks like symtag. And if we're going to use one of these functions, we have to
make a declaration where we use it, as we did in main above.
Notice the parallelism between the declarations
struct symtag *lookup();
struct symtag *psym;
In effect, this says that lookup() and psym are both used the same way - as a pointer to a structure --
even though one is a variable and the other is a function.
int x = 0; /* "0" could be any constant */
int a = 'a';
char flag = 0177;
int *p = &y[1]; /* p now points to y[1] */
An external array can be initialized by following its name with a list of initializations enclosed in braces:
int x[4] = {0,1,2,3}; /* makes x[i] = i */
int y[] = {0,1,2,3}; /* makes y big enough for 4 values */
char *msg = "syntax error\n"; /* braces unnecessary here */
char *keyword[]{
"if",
"else",
"for",
"while",
"break",
"continue",
0
};
This last one is very useful -- it makes keyword an array of pointers to character strings, with a zero at the end so we can
identify the last element easily. A simple lookup routine could scan this until it either finds a match or encounters a
zero keyword pointer:
int lookup(char *str) { /* search for str in keyword[] */
int i,j,r;
for (i=0; keyword[i] != 0; i++) {
for (j=0; (r=keyword[i][j]) == str[j] && r != '\0'; j++ );
if (r == str[j] )
return i;
}
return -1;
}
Local variables and structures can be initialized.
A major shortcut exists for making extern declarations. If the definition of a variable appears before its use in some function, no extern declaration is needed within the function. Thus, if a file contains
f1() { ... }
int foo;
f2() { ... foo = 1; ... }
f3() { ... if ( foo ) ... }
no declaration of foo is needed in either f2 or or f3, because the external definition of
foo appears before them. But if f1 wants to use foo, it has to contain the
declaration
f1() {
extern int foo;
...
}
This is true also of any function that exists on another file; if it wants foo it has to use an extern declaration
for it. (If somewhere there is an extern declaration for something, there must also eventually be an external definition of
it, or you'll get an ``undefined symbol´´ message.)
There are some hidden pitfalls in external declarations and definitions if you use multiple source files. To avoid them, first, define and initialize each external variable only once in the entire set of files:
int foo = 0;
You can get away with multiple external definitions on UNIX, but not on GCOS, so don't ask for trouble. Multiple
initializations are illegal everywhere. Second, at the beginning of any function that needs a variable whose definition is
in some other file, put in an extern declaration:
f1() {
extern int foo;
...
}
etc.
Note: An extern declaration outside a function is possible, but shall be avoided.
Global variables shall be limited in scope for easy source code maintainance.
The #include compiler control line, to be discussed shortly, lets you make a single copy of the external
declarations for a program and then stick them into each of the source files making up the program.
#define name something
and thereafter anywhere ``name´´ appears as a token, ``something´´ will be substituted. This is
particularly useful in parametering the sizes of arrays:
#define ARRAYSIZE 100
int arr[ARRAYSIZE];
...
while (i++ < ARRAYSIZE )...
(now we can alter the entire program by changing only the define) or in setting up mysterious constants:
#define SET 01
#define INTERRUPT 02 /* interrupt bit */
#define ENABLED 04
...
if (x & (SET | INTERRUPT | ENABLED) ) ...
Note: The enum statement shall be used instead of #define. With enum the above constant
definitions are:There are several warnings about #define. First, there's no semicolon at the end of a #define; all the text from the name to the end of the line (except for comments) is taken to be the ``something´´. When it's put into the text, blanks are placed around it. Good style typically makes the name in the #define upper case; this makes parameters more visible. Definitions affect things only after they occur, and only within the file in which they occur. Defines can't be nested.
The other control word known to C is #include. To include one file in your source at compilation time, say
#include "filename"
This is useful for putting a lot of heavily used data definitions and #define statements at the beginning of a file to be
compiled. As with #define, the first line of a file containing a #include has to begin with a `#'.
x = x & 0177;
forms the bit-wise AND of x and 0177, effectively retaining only the last seven bits of x. Other
operators are
| inclusive OR
^ (circumflex) exclusive OR
~ (tilde) 1's complement
! logical NOT
<< left shift (as in x<<2)
>> right shift (arithmetic on PDP-11; logical on H6070, IBM360)
x -= 10;
uses the assignment operator `=-' to decrement x by 10, and
x &= 0177
forms the AND of x and 0177. This convention is a useful notational shortcut, particularly if x
is a complicated expression. The classic example is summing an array:
for (sum=i=0; i<n; i++ )
sum += array[i];
Because all other operators in an expression are evaluated before the assignment operator, the order of evaluation should be watched carefully:
x = x<<y | z;
means ``shift x left y places, then OR with z, and store in x.´´ But
x <<= y | z;
means ``shift x left by y|z places´´, which is rather different.
double sum;
float avg, y[10];
sum = 0.0;
for (i=0; i<n; i++)
sum =+ y[i];
avg = sum/n;
forms the sum and average of the array y.
All floating arithmetic is done in double precision. Mixed mode arithmetic is legal; if an arithmetic operator in an
expression has both operands int or char, the arithmetic done is integer, but if one operand is
int or char and the other is float or double, both operands are converted to
double. Thus if i and j are int and x is
float,
(x+i)/j converts i and j to float
x + i/j does i/j integer, then converts
Type conversion may be made by assignment; for instance,
int m, n;
float x, y;
m = x;
y = n;
converts x to integer (truncating toward zero), and n to floating point.
Floating constants are just like those in Fortran or PL/I, except that the exponent letter is `e' instead of `E'. Thus:
pi = 3.14159;
large = 1.23456789e10;
printf will format floating point numbers: `%w.df´´ in the format string will print the corresponding
variable in a field w digits wide, with d decimal places. An e instead of an f will produce exponential notation.
One use of goto's with some legitimacy is in a program which contains a long loop, where a while(1) would be too
extended. Then you might write
mainloop:
...
goto mainloop;
Another use is to implement a break out of more than one level of for or while.
goto's can only branch to labels within the same function.
C is an extension of B, which was designed by D. M. Ritchie and K. L. Thompson [4]. The C language design and UNIX implementation are the work of D. M. Ritchie. The GCOS version was begun by A. Snyder and B. A. Barres, and completed by S. C. Johnson and M. E. Lesk. The IBM version is primarily due to T. G. Peterson, with the assistance of M. E. Lesk.