EEE 105
Computer Programming
Instructor: Dr. Tishna Sabrina
Fall 2023
Lecture 2
Introduction to C
Basic C program
A C program basically consists of the following
parts −
• Preprocessor Commands
• Functions
• Variables
• Statements & Expressions
• Comments
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Our first C program
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("Hello World!\n");
return 0;
}
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The first line of the program
The first line of the program is a pre-processor command, which tells a C
compiler to include stdio.h file before going to actual compilation.
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("Hello World!\n");
return 0;
}
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The second line of the program
The keyword int indicates that main returns an integer value
main is the name of the primary (or main) function. All
ANSI C programs must have a main function named main
The () indicates that main is the name of a function. All
function references must be followed with ()
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("Hello World!\n");
return 0;
}
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Our first C program
{ } enclose a "block". A block is zero or more C statements.
Note that code inside a block is typically indented for
readability—knowing what code is inside the current block is
quite useful.
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("Hello World!\n");
return 0;
}
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Our first C program
printf() is a "built-in" function (which is actually defined in
stdio.h).
"Hello World!" is the string to
print.
#include <stdio.h> More formally, this is called the
int main() control string or control specifier.
{
printf("Hello World!\n");
return 0;
}
Every executable statement must end with a ";"
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Our first C program
The \n is an escape character used by the printf
function; inserting this character in the control string causes
a “newline” to be printed—it’s as if you hit the “Enter” key
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("Hello World!\n");
return 0;
}
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Our first C program
The int tells the compiler our main() program will return
an integer to the operating system; the return tells what
integer value to return. This keyword could be void,
indicating that the program returns nothing to the OS.
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("Hello World!\n");
return 0;
}
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Variations #1 of first program
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("Hello");
printf("there");
printf("World!");
return 0;
}
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Variations #2 of first program
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("Hello\n");
printf("there\n");
printf("World!\n");
return 0;
}
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Variations #3 of first program
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("Hello\nthere\nWorld!\n");
return 0;
}
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Variations #4 of first program
#include <stdio.h>
int main(){printf ("Hello\nthere\nWorld!\n");return 0;}
Note while this is syntactically correct, it leaves much to be desired in terms of
readability.
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