Programming in C Course

Students will learn the fundamentals of the C programming language.

Background in a structured programming language, such as Pascal, is desirable, though not required.

Topics covered on the 5 day Programming in C course

Introduction to C

• The C Language and its Advantages
• The Structure of a C Program
• Writing C Programs
• Building an Executable Version of a C Program
• Debugging a C Program
• Examining and Running a C Application Program

Data Types and Variables

• Data Types
• Operands, Operators, and Arithmetic Expressions

Input/Output Management

• The Input/Output Concept
• The getchar() and putchar() Functions and Single-character I/O
• Formatted Input and the scanf() Function

Control-Flow Statements

• The Control-Flow Program Statements
• Looping Statements
• The Data-checking process

Modular Programming with Functions

• The C Function
• Passing Data to Functions
• Passing an Address to Modify a Value in Memory
• Using Functions in the Checkbook Program
• The C Standard Library Functions

Arrays, Pointers, and Strings

• Arrays
• Pointers
• Strings
• Using Arrays, Strings, and Pointers in the Checkbook Program

Structures and Dynamic Memory Allocation

• Structures
• Arrays of Structures
• Passing Structures to Functions
• Nesting Structures
• Dynamic Memory Allocation

The Preprocessor and Multiple-file Compilation

• The C Preprocessor and the #include and #define directives
• The Conditional Compilation Directives
• Global Variables and Variable Storage Classes
• Program Organization and Multi-file Compilation

File Input/Output

• Command-line Arguments
• File Input and Output
• Combining Command-line Arguments and File I/O

Appendices

• The ASCII Table
• The Bitwise Operators
• A Comparison of the ANSI C and K R Function Formats
• Enumerated Data Types
• Unions

Additional information: Although problem-solving skills are recognized as an integral component of computer programming, the primary focus of this course is to teach the specific components of the C language. Each lesson and activities focuses on this objective by having students examine and evaluate existing code, and modify or create new code that implements the components they have just learned about.