History of C Programming Language

The father of programming languages is ‘ALGOL’, first introduced in 1960.

ALGOL (Algorith Language) was initially used significantly in European
countries, and it introduced the concept of structured programming to the people.
In 1967, a new programming language came into force called ‘BCPL’, meaning
Basic Combined Programming Language.

BCPL was designed and developed as a general-purpose programming language by

Martin Richards. After three years, another programming language was introduced
in 1970 by Ken Thompson. It was known as ‘B’, which combined various features
of ‘BCPL”. It was created using the UNIX operating system at AT&T and Bell
Laboratories.

In 1972, Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thomspon developed a new programming

language called ‘C’ at the Bell Laboratories, created from ‘ALGOL’, ‘BCPL’, and
‘B’. ‘C’ contains all these languages and much more, making it unique from the
other programming languages. It is a powerful language which is associated with
UNIX.

Initially, ‘C’ was limited to UNIX OS, but it gradually spread worldwide, and
many compilers were released for cross-platform systems.

Importance of C programming
C programming language offers several advantages over other programming
languages, including:
o Efficiency: C allows for direct memory manipulation and low-level access to
system resources. This results in highly efficient code execution.
o Portability: C code can be easily ported to different platforms without major
modifications, thanks to its wide availability of compilers and libraries.
o Speed: C is known for its fast execution speed, making it suitable for
developing performance-critical applications.
o Control: C gives programmers fine-grained control over memory
management and system resources.
o Compatibility: C code can be easily integrated with code written in other
languages like C++, Java, and Python.
Operating systems: All modern operating systems, such as Windows, Linux,
and macOS, have a significant portion of their codebase written in C.
o Embedded systems: Devices like washing machines, smart TVs, and medical
equipment often run on embedded systems programmed using C.
o Mobile applications: Some parts of mobile applications, including high-
performance tasks and system-level operations, may be implemented in C
for efficiency.
o Gaming consoles: Popular gaming consoles’ core software and engines are
often developed using C.
o Network infrastructure: Routers and networking devices rely on software
written in C to handle complex networking protocols.

 Source Character Set (SCS): SCS is used to parse the source code into
internal representation before preprocessing phase. This set includes Basic
Character Set and White-space Characters.
 Execution Character Set (ECS): ECS is used to store character string
constants. Other than Basic Character Set, this set contains Control
Characters and Escape Sequences.


Character Set in C
In C, the character set used to represent characters in source code is based on
the ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) character
set. The ASCII character set includes the following elements:
1. Alphabetic Characters (A-Z, a-z): These represent both uppercase and
lowercase English letters. For example, 'A' to 'Z' and 'a' to 'z'.
2. Digits (0-9): These represent numeric characters. For example, '0' to '9'.
3. Special Characters: These include various special characters used in
programming and text processing. Some common special characters include:
o Arithmetic Operators: +, -, *, /, %
o Relational Operators: <, >, ==, !=, <=, >=
o Logical Operators: &&, ||, !
o Punctuation: ;, :, ,, ., ?, !
o Brackets and Parentheses: (, ), [, ], {, }
o Quotes: ', "
o Backslash: \
o Ampersand: &
o Dollar Sign: $
o Hash or Pound Sign: #
4. Whitespace Characters: These include space (' '), tab ('\t'), newline ('\n'),
carriage return ('\r'), and form feed ('\f'). These characters are used for
formatting and layout in code and text.
5. Control Characters: These include non-printable characters like the escape
character ('\e') and others used for control and formatting, such as '\b'
(backspace), '\t' (tab), and '\n' (newline).
6. Escape Sequences: C allows you to use escape sequences to represent
characters that are difficult to type or invisible. For example, '\n' represents a
newline character, and '\t' represents a tab character.
7. Extended Characters: C also includes characters beyond the ASCII set,
especially for international character encoding. These include characters
with accents, diacritics, and symbols from various languages.
It's important to note that the C standard library, such as <ctype.h>, provides
functions and macros for character handling and manipulation, making it
easier to work with characters and strings in C programs. The character set
serves as the basis for representing and processing text and characters in C
code.
 Use of Character Set in C
The character set in C, which is primarily based on the ASCII character set,
is fundamental to working with characters and text in C programming. Here
are several key uses of the character set in C:
1. Declaring and Storing Character Variables: In C, you can declare
character variables to store individual characters. For example:
2. String Handling: C represents strings as arrays of characters. The character
set is used extensively in creating and manipulating strings. For example:
3. Input and Output: The character set is used when reading input and
displaying output using functions like printf and scanf. For example:
4. Comparisons: Characters can be compared using relational operators, and
string comparisons are essential for tasks like sorting and searching within
strings.
5. Conversions: You can convert between characters and other data types,
such as integers and floating-point numbers. This is helpful for character
manipulation and arithmetic.
6. Character Constants: Characters are used as constants, like newline
characters ('\n') or escape sequences, in control statements and text
processing.
7. Loop Control: Characters play a role in loop control, especially in
character-by-character processing. For instance, reading characters in a loop
to process a file character by character.
8. Character Classification: The character set is used for character
classification functions provided by the <ctype.h> library, such
as isalpha, isdigit, and islower, to check character properties.
9. Working with Text Data: C programming often involves text processing,
such as parsing data from files or user input. The character set is essential for
these tasks.
The character set forms the foundation for working with textual data, and it
underlies many of the operations you perform when dealing with characters
and strings in C programming. It allows you to represent, manipulate, and
process text efficiently and effectively in C programs.
Difference between Keyword and Identifier
Keywords: Keywords are specific reserved words in C each of which has a
specific feature associated with it. Almost all of the words which help us use the
functionality of the C language are included in the list of keywords. So you can
imagine that the list of keywords is not going to be a small one! There are a total of
32 keywords in C:
Identifiers: Identifiers are used as the general terminology for naming of
variables, functions and arrays. These are user defined names consisting of
arbitrarily long sequence of letters and digits with either a letter or the
underscore(_) as a first character. Identifier names must differ in spelling and case
from any keywords. You cannot use keywords as identifiers; they are reserved for
special use. Once declared, you can use the identifier in later program statements to
refer to the associated value. A special kind of identifier, called a statement label,
can be used in goto statements. Difference between Keyword and Identifier:

SR.
NO. KEYWORD IDENTIFIER

Keywords are predefined word Identifiers are the values used to define
that gets reserved for working different programming items such as
1 program that have special variables, integers, structures, unions
meaning and cannot get used and others and mostly have an
anywhere else. alphabetic character.

2 Specify the type/kind of entity. Identify the name of a particular entity.

It always starts with a lowercase First character can be a uppercase,

3
letter. lowercase letter or underscore.

A keyword should be in lower An identifier can be in upper case or

4
case. lower case.
SR.
NO. KEYWORD IDENTIFIER

An identifier can consist of

A keyword contains only
5 alphabetical characters, digits and
alphabetical characters.
underscores.

They help to identify a specific They help to locate the name of the
6 property that exists within a entity that gets defined along with a
computer language. keyword.

No special symbol, punctuation No punctuation or special symbol

7
is used. except ‘underscore’ is used.

Examples of keywords are: int, Examples of identifiers are: Test,

8
char, if, while, do, class etc. count1, high_speed, etc.

Data Types in C
Last Updated : 28 Sep, 2023
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Each variable in C has an associated data type. It specifies the type of data that the
variable can store like integer, character, floating, double, etc. Each data type requires
different amounts of memory and has some specific operations which can be
performed over it. The data type is a collection of data with values having fixed
values, meaning as well as its characteristics.
The data types in C can be classified as follows:
Types Description

Primitive Data Primitive data types are the most basic data types that are used for
Types representing simple values such as integers, float, characters, etc.
 Types Description

User Defined
The user-defined data types are defined by the user himself.
Data Types

The data types that are derived from the primitive or built-in
Derived Types
datatypes are referred to as Derived Data Types.

Different data types also have different ranges up to which they can store numbers.
These ranges may vary from compiler to compiler. Below is a list of ranges along
with the memory requirement and format specifiers on the 32-bit GCC compiler.
Size Format
Data Type (bytes) Range Specifier

short int 2 -32,768 to 32,767 %hd

unsigned short
2 0 to 65,535 %hu
int

unsigned int 4 0 to 4,294,967,295 %u

-2,147,483,648 to
int 4 %d
2,147,483,647

-2,147,483,648 to
long int 4 %ld
2,147,483,647

unsigned long int 4 0 to 4,294,967,295 %lu

long long int 8 -(2^63) to (2^63)-1 %lld

 Size Format
Data Type (bytes) Range Specifier

unsigned long 0 to
8 %llu
long int 18,446,744,073,709,551,615

signed char 1 -128 to 127 %c

unsigned char 1 0 to 255 %c

float 4 %f
1.2E-38 to 3.4E+38

double 8 %lf
1.7E-308 to 1.7E+308

long double 16 %Lf

3.4E-4932 to 1.1E+4932

.The following are some main primitive data types in C:

Integer Data Type

The integer datatype in C is used to store the integer numbers(any number including
positive, negative and zero without decimal part). Octal values, hexadecimal values,
and decimal values can be stored in int data type in C.
 Range: -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647
 Size: 4 bytes
 Format Specifier: %d
Syntax of Integer
We use int keyword to declare the integer variable:
The integer data type can also be used as
1. unsigned int: Unsigned int data type in C is used to store the data values
from zero to positive numbers but it can’t store negative values like signed
int.
 2. short int: It is lesser in size than the int by 2 bytes so can only store values
from -32,768 to 32,767.
3. long int: Larger version of the int datatype so can store values greater than
int.
4. unsigned short int: Similar in relationship with short int as unsigned int
with int.
Character Data Type
Character data type allows its variable to store only a single character. The size of the
character is 1 byte. It is the most basic data type in C. It stores a single character and
requires a single byte of memory in almost all compilers.
 Range: (-128 to 127) or (0 to 255)
 Size: 1 byte
 Format Specifier: %c
Syntax of char
The char keyword is used to declare the variable of character type:
Float Data Type
In C programming float data type is used to store floating-point values. Float in C is
used to store decimal and exponential values. It is used to store decimal numbers
(numbers with floating point values) with single precision.
 Range: 1.2E-38 to 3.4E+38
 Size: 4 bytes
 Format Specifier: %f
Syntax of float
The float keyword is used to declare the variable as a floating point:

Double Data Type

A Double data type in C is used to store decimal numbers (numbers with floating
point values) with double precision. It is used to define numeric values which hold
numbers with decimal values in C.
The double data type is basically a precision sort of data type that is capable of
holding 64 bits of decimal numbers or floating points. Since double has more
precision as compared to that float then it is much more obvious that it occupies twice
the memory occupied by the floating-point type. It can easily accommodate about 16
to 17 digits after or before a decimal point.
 Range: 1.7E-308 to 1.7E+308
 Size: 8 bytes
 Format Specifier: %lf
Syntax of Double
The variable can be declared as double precision floating point using the double
keyword:
Void Data Type
The void data type in C is used to specify that no value is present. It does not provide
a result value to its caller. It has no values and no operations. It is used to represent
nothing. Void is used in multiple ways as function return type, function arguments as
void, and pointers to void.
Syntax:

Size of Data Types in C

The size of the data types in C is dependent on the size of the architecture, so we
cannot define the universal size of the data types. For that, the C language provides
the sizeof() operator to check the size of the data types.

Variables in C
A variable in simple terms is a storage place that has some memory allocated to it.
It is used to store some form of data and retrieve it when required. Different types of
variables require different amounts of memory and have some specific set of
operations that can be applied to them.
C Variable Declaration
type variable_name;
type variable1_name, variable2_name, variable3_name;
A variable name can consist of alphabets (both upper and lower case), numbers, and
the underscore ‘_’ character. However, the name must not start with a number.

Constants in C
The constants are those variables or values in the C which cannot be modified once
they are defined in the program.
 They have fixed values till the program’s life.
 We can only assign value to the constant in the declaration.
 There can be any type of constant like integer, float, octal, hexadecimal,
character constants, etc.
The following table lists the differences between the constant and variables in C:

Constant Variables

A constant is a variable or value that cannot be A variable is a name associated with

 Constant Variables

altered once defined. some memory location.

A variable is used to hold some value

A constant is used to hold the fixed values
that can be changed according to the
which we can retrieve later but cannot change.
requirement.

The variables are stored inside a data

The constants are generally stored in the text
segment, heap, or stack depending on
segment as they are read-only
the environment it is declared in.

We can only assign a value to the constant We can assign value to the variable
while defining it. anytime.

A constant can be defined by A variable can only be defined using

using #define or const keyword. the standard variable definition syntax.

Example: #define pi 3.14 Example: int var = 25;

const int pi = 3.14; var = 10;

Assignment operators are used for assigning value to a variable. The left side
operand of the assignment operator is a variable and right side operand of the
assignment operator is a value. The value on the right side must be of the same data-
type of the variable on the left side otherwise the compiler will raise an error.
Different types of assignment operators are shown below:
1. “=”: This is the simplest assignment operator. This operator is used to assign the
value on the right to the variable on the left. Example:

2. “+=”: This operator is combination of ‘+’ and ‘=’ operators. This operator first
adds the current value of the variable on left to the value on the right and then
assigns the result to the variable on the left. Example:
If initially value stored in a is 5. Then (a += 6) = 11.
3. “-=” This operator is combination of ‘-‘ and ‘=’ operators. This operator first
subtracts the value on the right from the current value of the variable on left and then
assigns the result to the variable on the left. Example:
If initially value stored in a is 8. Then (a -= 6) = 2.

4. “*=” This operator is combination of ‘*’ and ‘=’ operators. This operator first
multiplies the current value of the variable on left to the value on the right and then
assigns the result to the variable on the left. Example:
If initially value stored in a is 5. Then (a *= 6) = 30.

5. “/=” This operator is combination of ‘/’ and ‘=’ operators. This operator first
divides the current value of the variable on left by the value on the right and then
assigns the result to the variable on the left. Example:

Symbolic constants are nothing more than a label or name that is used to represent
some fixed value that never changes throughout the course of a program. For
example, one might define PI as a constant to represent the value 3.14159.

Structure of the C Program

Last Updated : 20 Mar, 2023
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The basic structure of a C program is divided into 6 parts which makes it easy to read,
modify, document, and understand in a particular format. C program must follow the
below-mentioned outline in order to successfully compile and execute. Debugging is
easier in a well-structured C program.

Sections of the C Program

There are 6 basic sections responsible for the proper execution of a program. Sections
are mentioned below:
1. Documentation
2. Preprocessor Section
3. Definition
4. Global Declaration
5. Main() Function
6. Sub Programs
1. Documentation

This section consists of the description of the program, the name of the program, and
the creation date and time of the program. It is specified at the start of the program in
the form of comments. Documentation can be represented as:
Anything written as comments will be treated as documentation of the program and
this will not interfere with the given code. Basically, it gives an overview to the reader
of the program.

2. Preprocessor Section

All the header files of the program will be declared in the preprocessor section of the
program. Header files help us to access other’s improved code into our code. A copy
of these multiple files is inserted into our program before the process of compilation.

3. Definition

Preprocessors are the programs that process our source code before the process of
compilation. There are multiple steps which are involved in the writing and execution
of the program. Preprocessor directives start with the ‘#’ symbol. The #define
preprocessor is used to create a constant throughout the program. Whenever this name
is encountered by the compiler, it is replaced by the actual piece of defined code.
4. Global Declaration
The global declaration section contains global variables, function declaration, and
static variables. Variables and functions which are declared in this scope can be used
anywhere in the program.

5. Main() Function

Every C program must have a main function. The main() function of the program is
written in this section. Operations like declaration and execution are performed inside
the curly braces of the main program. The return type of the main() function can be int
as well as void too. void() main tells the compiler that the program will not return any
value. The int main() tells the compiler that the program will return an integer value.
6. Sub Programs
User-defined functions are called in this section of the program. The control of the
program is shifted to the called function whenever they are called from the main or
outside the main() function. These are specified as per the requirements of the
programmer.
1.2. Input/Output (printf and scanf)
C’s printf function prints values to the terminal, and the scanf function reads in
values entered by a user. The printf and scanf functions belong to C’s standard I/O
library, which needs to be explicitly included at the top of any .c file that uses these
functions by using #include <stdio.h>. In this section, we introduce the basics of
using printf and scanf in C programs. The "I/O" section in Chapter 2 discusses C’s
input and output functions in more detail.
1.2.1. printf
C’s printf function is very similar to formatted print in Python, where the caller
specifies a format string to print. The format string often contains formatting
specifiers, such as special characters that will print tabs (\t) or newlines (\n), or
placeholders for values in the output. Placeholders consist of % followed by a type
specifier letter (for example, %d represents a placeholder for an integer value).
1.2.2. scanf
C’s scanf function represents one method for reading in values entered by the user
(via the keyboard) and storing them in program variables. The scanf function can
be a bit picky about the exact format in which the user enters data, which means
that it’s not very robust to badly formed user input. For now, remember that if your
program gets into an infinite loop due to badly formed user input, you can always
press CTRL-C to terminate it.
Reading input is handled differently in Python and C: Python uses
the input function to read in a value as a string, and then the program converts the
string value to an int, whereas C uses scanf to read in an int value and to store it at
the location in memory of an int program

What is a C Operator?
An operator in C can be defined as the symbol that helps us to perform some specific
mathematical, relational, bitwise, conditional, or logical computations on values and
variables. The values and variables used with operators are called operands. So we
can say that the operators are the symbols that perform operations on operands.

For example,
c = a + b;

Here, ‘+’ is the operator known as the addition operator, and ‘a’ and ‘b’ are
operands. The addition operator tells the compiler to add both of the operands ‘a’
and ‘b’.
Types of Operators in C
C language provides a wide range of operators that can be classified into 6 types
based on their functionality:
1. Arithmetic Operators
2. Relational Operators
3. Logical Operators
4. Bitwise Operators
5. Assignment Operators
6. Other Operators
1. Arithmetic Operations in C
The arithmetic operators are used to perform arithmetic/mathematical operations on
operands. There are 9 arithmetic operators in C language:
S. No. Symbol Operator Description Syntax

Adds two
+ Plus a+b
1 numeric values.

Subtracts right
– Minus operand from a–b
2 left operand.

Multiply two
* Multiply a*b
3 numeric values.

Divide two
/ Divide a/b
4 numeric values.

Returns the
remainder after
% Modulus diving the left a%b
operand with the
5 right operand.
 S. No. Symbol Operator Description Syntax

Used to specify
+ Unary Plus the positive +a
6 values.

Flips the sign of

– Unary Minus -a
7 the value.

Increases the
++ Increment value of the a++
8 operand by 1.

Decreases the
— Decrement value of the a–
9 operand by 1.

2. Relational Operators in C
The relational operators in C are used for the comparison of the two operands. All
these operators are binary operators that return true or false values as the result of
comparison.
These are a total of 6 relational operators in C:
S. No. Symbol Operator Description Syntax

Returns true if
the left operand
< Less than is less than the a<b
right operand.
1 Else false

Returns true if
the left operand
is greater than
> Greater than a>b
the right
operand. Else
2 false
 S. No. Symbol Operator Description Syntax

Returns true if
the left operand
is less than or
Less than or
<= equal to the a <= b
equal to
right operand.
Else false
3

Returns true if
the left operand
Greater than is greater than
>= a >= b
or equal to or equal to right
operand. Else
4 false

Returns true if
both the
== Equal to a == b
operands are
5 equal.

Returns true if
both the
!= Not equal to a != b
operands are
6 NOT equal.

Here, 0 means false and 1 means true.

3. Logical Operator in C
Logical Operators are used to combine two or more conditions/constraints or to
complement the evaluation of the original condition in consideration. The result of
the operation of a logical operator is a Boolean value either true or false.
S. No. Symbol Operator Description Syntax

Returns true if
both the
&& Logical AND a && b
operands are
1 true.

2 || Logical OR Returns true if a || b

 S. No. Symbol Operator Description Syntax

both or any of
the operand is
true.

Returns true if
! Logical NOT the operand is !a
3 false.

4. Bitwise Operators in C
The Bitwise operators are used to perform bit-level operations on the operands. The
operators are first converted to bit-level and then the calculation is performed on the
operands. Mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc.
can be performed at the bit level for faster processing.
There are 6 bitwise operators in C:
S. No. Symbol Operator Description Syntax

Performs bit-by-
bit AND
& Bitwise AND operation and a&b
returns the
1 result.

Performs bit-by-
bit OR operation
| Bitwise OR a|b
and returns the
2 result.

Performs bit-by-
bit XOR
^ Bitwise XOR operation and a^b
returns the
3 result.

Flips all the set

Bitwise First
~ and unset bits ~a
Complement
4 on the number.
 S. No. Symbol Operator Description Syntax

Shifts the
number in
binary form by
Bitwise
<< one place in the a << b
Leftshift
operation and
returns the
5 result.

Shifts the
number in
binary form by
Bitwise
>> one place in the a >> b
Rightshilft
operation and
returns the
6 result.

5. Assignment Operators in C
Assignment operators are used to assign value to a variable. The left side operand of
the assignment operator is a variable and the right side operand of the assignment
operator is a value. The value on the right side must be of the same data type as the
variable on the left side otherwise the compiler will raise an error.
The assignment operators can be combined with some other operators in C to
provide multiple operations using single operator. These operators are called
compound operators.
In C, there are 11 assignment operators :
6. Other Operators
Conditional Operator ( ? : )
 The conditional operator is the only ternary operator in C++.
 Here, Expression1 is the condition to be evaluated. If the
condition(Expression1) is True then we will execute and return the result
of Expression2 otherwise if the condition(Expression1) is false then we
will execute and return the result of Expression3.
 We may replace the use of if..else statements with conditional operators.

in
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Unary operators are the operators that perform operations on a single operand to
produce a new value.
Types of unary operators
Types of unary operators are mentioned below:
1. Unary minus ( – )
2. Increment ( ++ )
3. Decrement ( — )
4. NOT ( ! )
5. Addressof operator ( & )
6. sizeof()
1. Unary Minus
The minus operator ( – ) changes the sign of its argument. A positive number
becomes negative, and a negative number becomes positive.
is different from the subtraction operator, as subtraction requires two operands.
Below is the implementation of the unary minus (-) operator:
2. Increment
The increment operator ( ++ ) is used to increment the value of the variable by 1.
The increment can be done in two ways:
2.1 prefix increment
In this method, the operator precedes the operand (e.g., ++a). The value of the
operand will be altered before it is used.
3. Decrement
The decrement operator ( — ) is used to decrement the value of the variable by 1.
The decrement can be done in two ways:
3.1 prefix decrement
In this method, the operator precedes the operand (e.g., – -a). The value of the operand
will be altered before it is used.
4. NOT ( ! )
The logical NOT operator ( ! ) is used to reverse the logical state of its operand. If a
condition is true, then the Logical NOT operator will make it false.
5. Addressof operator ( & )
The addressof operator ( & ) gives an address of a variable. It is used to return the
memory address of a variable. These addresses returned by the address-of operator are
known as pointers because they “point” to the variable in memory.
C
Arithmetic Expressions
An arithmetic expression is an expression that consists of operands and arithmetic
operators. An arithmetic expression computes a value of type int, float or double.
When an expression contains only integral operands, then it is known as pure integer
expression when it contains only real operands, it is known as pure real expression, and
when it contains both integral and real operands, it is known as mixed mode expression.

Relational Expressions
A relational expression is an expression used to compare two operands.

o It is a condition which is used to decide whether the action should be taken or

not.
o In relational expressions, a numeric value cannot be compared with the string
value.
o The result of the relational expression can be either zero or non-zero value. Here,
the zero value is equivalent to a false and non-zero value is equivalent to true.

Logical Expressions
o A logical expression is an expression that computes either a zero or non-zero value.
o It is a complex test condition to take a decision.

a 4. Assignment Expressions: Assignment expressions are used to assign values to variables. They use the
assignment operator (=) to store a value on the left side into a variable on the right

side. rithoperands and arithmetic operators. An

Evaluation Of Arithmetic Expressions in C
In C, the evaluation of arithmetic expression in programming language follows a specific order
determined by the compiler. This order, known as operator precedence, ensures that expressions are evaluated
correctly and consistently. Understanding the order of evaluation is important for writing accurate and
predictable code.

Operator precedence dictates the order in which operators are evaluated within an expression. The precedence

of different operators is specified by a set of rules in the C programming language. For instance, division and

multiplication take precedence over addition and subtraction. Additionally, parentheses can be used to compel

a certain order of evaluation and override the default precedence.

What is a type casting?

When a data type is converted into another data type by a programmer or user while
writing a program code of any programming language, the mechanism is known
as type casting. The programmer manually uses it to convert one data type into
another. It is used if we want to change the target data type to another data type.
Remember that the destination data type must be smaller than the source data type.
Hence it is also called a narrowing conversion.

What is type conversion?

If a data type is automatically converted into another data type at compile time is
known as type conversion. The conversion is performed by the compiler if both data
types are compatible with each other. Remember that the destination data type should
not be smaller than the source type. It is also known as widening conversion of the data
type.

Associativity of Operators
When an expression contains two operators of equal priority the tie between
them is settled using the associativity of the operators. Associativity can be of
two types—Left to Right or Right to Left. Left to Right associativity means that
the left operand must be unambiguous. Unambiguous in what sense? It must not
be involved in evaluation of any other sub-expression. Similarly, in case of
Right to Left associativity the right operand must be unambiguous. Let us
understand this with an example.

Hierarchy of Arithmetic Operations in C

C programming follows a hierarchy of arithmetic operations similar to the

conventional order of mathematical operations. This means that some arithmetic
operations take precedence over others. The hierarchy is as follows:

1. Parentheses ()
2. Unary Operators (++ and --)
3. Multiplication, Division, and Modulus (*, /, and %)
4. Addition and Subtraction (+ and -)

The higher the position of an operation in this hierarchy, the greater precedence it
has. Arithmetic operators of equal precedence are evaluated from left to right.

The conditional statements (also known as decision control structures) such as if, if
else, switch, etc. are used for decision-making purposes in C programs.
They are also known as Decision-Making Statements and are used to evaluate one or
more conditions and make the decision whether to execute a set of statements or not.
These decision-making statements in programming languages decide the direction of
the flow of program execution.
Need of Conditional Statements
There come situations in real life when we need to make some decisions and based
on these decisions, we decide what should we do next. Similar situations arise in
programming also where we need to make some decisions and based on these
decisions we will execute the next block of code. For example, in C if x occurs then
execute y else execute z. There can also be multiple conditions like in C if x occurs
then execute p, else if condition y occurs execute q, else execute r. This condition of
C else-if is one of the many ways of importing multiple conditions.
Types of Conditional Statements in C

Following are the decision-making statements available in C:

1. if Statement
2. if-else Statement
3. Nested if Statement
4. if-else-if Ladder
5. switch Statement
6. Conditional Operator
7. Jump Statements:
 break
 continue
 goto
 return
Let’s discuss each of them one by one.
1. if in C
The if statement is the most simple decision-making statement. It is used to decide
whether a certain statement or block of statements will be executed or not i.e if a
certain condition is true then a block of statements is executed otherwise not.
Syntax of if Statement
if(condition)
{
// Statements to execute if
// condition is true
}
Here, the condition after evaluation will be either true or false. C if statement
accepts boolean values – if the value is true then it will execute the block of
statements below it otherwise not. If we do not provide the curly braces ‘{‘ and ‘}’
after if(condition) then by default if statement will consider the first immediately
below statement to be inside its block.
Flowchart of if Statement

Flow Diagram of if Statement

As the condition present in the if statement is false. So, the block below the if
statement is not executed.
2. if-else in C
The if statement alone tells us that if a condition is true it will execute a block of
statements and if the condition is false it won’t. But what if we want to do something
else when the condition is false? Here comes the C else statement. We can use
the else statement with the if statement to execute a block of code when the
condition is false. The if-else statement consists of two blocks, one for false
expression and one for true expression.
Syntax of if else in C
if (condition)
{
// Executes this block if
// condition is true
}
else
{
// Executes this block if
 // condition is false
}
Flowchart of if-else Statement

Flow Diagram of if else

The block of code following the else statement is executed as the condition present
in the if statement is false.
3. Nested if-else in C
A nested if in C is an if statement that is the target of another if statement. Nested if
statements mean an if statement inside another if statement. Yes, C allow us to
nested if statements within if statements, i.e, we can place an if statement inside
another if statement.
Syntax of Nested if-else
if (condition1)
{
// Executes when condition1 is true
if (condition2)
{
 // Executes when condition2 is true
}
else
{
// Executes when condition2 is false
}
Flowchart of Nested if-else

Flow Diagram of Nested if-else

4. if-else-if Ladder in C
The if else if statements are used when the user has to decide among multiple
options. The C if statements are executed from the top down. As soon as one of the
conditions controlling the if is true, the statement associated with that if is executed,
and the rest of the C else-if ladder is bypassed. If none of the conditions is true, then
the final else statement will be executed. if-else-if ladder is similar to the switch
statement.
Syntax of if-else-if Ladder
if (condition)
statement;
else if (condition)
statement;
.
.
else
statement;
Flowchart of if-else-if Ladder
 Flow Diagram of if-else-if

5. switch Statement in C
The switch case statement is an alternative to the if else if ladder that can be used to
execute the conditional code based on the value of the variable specified in the
switch statement. The switch block consists of cases to be executed based on the
value of the switch variable.
Syntax of switch
switch (expression) {
case value1:
statements;
case value2:
statements;
....

C) goto
The goto statement in C also referred to as the unconditional jump statement can be
used to jump from one point to another within a function.
Syntax of goto
Syntax1 | Syntax2
----------------------------
goto label; | label:
. | .
. | .
. | .
label: | goto label;
In the above syntax, the first line tells the compiler to go to or jump to the statement
marked as a label. Here, a label is a user-defined identifier that indicates the target
statement. The statement immediately followed after ‘label:’ is the destination
statement. The ‘label:’ can also appear before the ‘goto label;’ statement in the
above syntax.

Flowchart of switch in C

There are mainly two types of loops in C Programming:

1. Entry Controlled loops: In Entry controlled loops the test condition is
checked before entering the main body of the loop. For Loop and While
Loop is Entry-controlled loops.
2. Exit Controlled loops: In Exit controlled loops the test condition is
evaluated at the end of the loop body. The loop body will execute at least
once, irrespective of whether the condition is true or false. do-while
Loop is Exit Controlled loop.
Loop Type Description

first Initializes, then condition check, then executes the body and at last, the
for loop
update is done.

first Initializes, then condition checks, and then executes the body, and
while loop
updating can be inside the body.

do-while
do-while first executes the body and then the condition check is done.
loop

for Loop
for loop in C programming is a repetition control structure that allows programmers
to write a loop that will be executed a specific number of times. for loop enables
programmers to perform n number of steps together in a single line.
Syntax:
for (initialize expression; test expression; update expression)
{
//
// body of for loop
//
}
Example:
for(int i = 0; i < n; ++i)
{
printf("Body of for loop which will execute till n");
}
In for loop, a loop variable is used to control the loop. Firstly we initialize the loop
variable with some value, then check its test condition. If the statement is true then
control will move to the body and the body of for loop will be executed. Steps will
be repeated till the exit condition becomes true. If the test condition will be false
then it will stop.
 Initialization Expression: In this expression, we assign a loop variable or
loop counter to some value. for example: int i=1;
 Test Expression: In this expression, test conditions are performed. If the
condition evaluates to true then the loop body will be executed and then an
update of the loop variable is done. If the test expression becomes false
then the control will exit from the loop. for example, i<=9;
 Update Expression: After execution of the loop body loop variable is
updated by some value it could be incremented, decremented, multiplied,
or divided by any value.
for loop Equivalent Flow Diagram:
Example:
 C

// C program to illustrate for loop

#include <stdio.h>

// Driver code
int main()
{
int i = 0;
 for (i = 1; i <= 10; i++)
{
printf( "Hello World\n");
}
return 0;
}

Output
Hello World
Hello World
Hello World
Hello World
Hello World
Hello World
Hello World
Hello World
Hello World
Hello World

While Loop
While loop does not depend upon the number of iterations. In for loop the number of
iterations was previously known to us but in the While loop, the execution is
terminated on the basis of the test condition. If the test condition will become false
then it will break from the while loop else body will be executed.
Syntax:
initialization_expression;

while (test_expression)
{
// body of the while loop

update_expression;
}
Flow Diagram for while loop:
do-while Loop
The do-while loop is similar to a while loop but the only difference lies in the do-
while loop test condition which is tested at the end of the body. In the do-while loop,
the loop body will execute at least once irrespective of the test condition.
Types of Jump Statements in C
There are 4 types of jump statements in C:
1. break
2. continue
3. goto
 4. return
1. break in C
The break statement exits or terminates the loop or switch statement based on a
certain condition, without executing the remaining code.

Uses of break in C
The break statement is used in C for the following purposes:
1. To come out of the loop.
2. To come out from the nested loops.
3. To come out of the switch case.
4.
will break the inner loop without affecting the execution of the outer loop.
Example of break Statement
The statements inside the loop are executed sequentially. When the break statement
is encountered within the loop and the condition for the break statement becomes
true, the program flow breaks out of the loop, regardless of any remaining iterations.
Explanation:
 Loop Execution Starts and goes normally till i = 5.
  When i = 6, the condition for the break statement becomes true and the
program control immediately exits the loop.
 The control continues with the remaining statements outside the loop.
switch statement to terminate the switch statement after the matching case is
executed.
2. Continue in C
The continue statement in C is used to skip the remaining code after the continue
statement within a loop and jump to the next iteration of the loop. When the
continue statement is encountered, the loop control immediately jumps to the next
iteration, by skipping the lines of code written after it within the loop body.
Syntax of continue in C
Flowchart of continue Statement

A nested loop means a loop statement inside another loop statement. That is why
nested loops are also called “loop inside loops“. We can define any number of loops
inside another loop.
1. Nested for Loop
Nested for loop refers to any type of loop that is defined inside a ‘for’ loop. Below is
the equivalent flow diagram for nested ‘for’ loops:
A nested loop means a loop statement inside another loop statement. That is why
nested loops are also called “loop inside loops“. We can define any number of loops
inside another loop.
1. Nested for Loop
Nested for loop refers to any type of loop that is defined inside a ‘for’ loop. Below is
the equivalent flow diagram for nested ‘for’ loops:
Nested for loop in C

Nested for loop in C