Basic Structure of C Programming and Fundamentals

A complete set of vocabulary practice flashcards covering the basic structure of C programs, compilation stages, tokens, data types, operators, input/output functions, and type conversion based on the lecture notes.

Basic Structure of C Program

The standard layout of a C source file, consisting of Documentation, Link, Definition, Global Declaration, main() Function, Local Declaration, and Executable sections.

Documentation Section

The section of a C program consisting of comments that describe the program.

Link Section

The section of a C program used to include header files using preprocessor directives like #include <stdio.h>.

Definition Section

The section of a C program used to declare symbolic constants using #define.

Global Declaration Section

The section of a C program where global variables and global function declarations are placed.

main() Function

The mandatory entry point function of every C program from which program execution always starts.

Local Declaration Section

The section inside a function, such as main(), where variables used strictly within that function are declared.

Executable Section

The section of a C program containing logical instructions such as input/output operations, data processing, and calculations.

Compiler

A language translator that scans an entire high-level program in one go, checking syntactic and semantic errors simultaneously, and converts source code to object code.

Interpreter

A language translator that translates and executes high-level code one line at a time, checking syntactic errors line by line without creating object code.

Assembler

A program that converts assembly language, a low-level programming language using mnemonics and symbols, into machine code for the processor.

C Compilation and Execution Process

The workflow converting Source Code via Compiler into Object Code, linked by Linker with Additional Files into Executable Files, and loaded into Memory by Loader.

Linker

A utility program that combines separate object files or modules into a single executable file.

Loader

A utility program that loads an executable file into memory, prepares it for execution, and starts the program.

C Tokens

The fundamental, indivisible units in C programming that the compiler uses to understand and process a program.

Classification of C Tokens

The fundamental units of C categorized into Keywords, Constants, Identifiers, Strings, Special Symbols, and Operators.

Keywords

The $32$ reserved words in C that have predefined meanings and cannot be used as variable or user identifiers.

Identifiers

User-defined names assigned to variables, functions, arrays, and other entities within a program.

Constants

Fixed values that cannot be changed during program execution, including integer, floating, character, string, and symbolic constants.

Strings

Sequences of characters enclosed within double quotes.

Operators

Symbols that tell the compiler to perform specific mathematical, logical, relational, or bitwise operations on operands.

Special Symbols

Symbols in C that have specific syntactic meanings, such as parentheses (), braces {}, commas ,, and semicolons ;.

Classification of Data Types in C

Data types categorized into Basic Data Types (int, float, double, char, bool, void), Derived Data Types (array, pointer, function), and User Defined Data Types (union, structure, enum).

Primitive Data Types

The basic built-in data types in C used to store simple values like integers, characters, and floating-point numbers.

Float Data Type

A primitive data type used to store decimal numbers with fractional parts, typically taking $4\,\text{Bytes}$ of memory with an approximate range of $3.4\text{e}-38$ to $3.4\text{e}+38$ and format specifier %f.

Character Data Type

A primitive data type used to store a single character, typically taking $1\,\text{Byte}$ of memory with a range of $-128$ to $127$ and format specifier %c.

Double Data Type

A primitive data type used to store decimal numbers with higher precision than float, typically taking $8\,\text{Bytes}$ of memory with an approximate range of $1.7\text{e}-308$ to $1.7\text{e}+308$ and format specifier %lf.

Void Data Type

An empty data type representing no value, commonly used for functions that do not return a value or for generic pointers (void *).

Derived Data Types

Data types in C created from primitive data types, including arrays, pointers, and functions.

Array

A derived data type that stores multiple values of the same type in contiguous memory locations.

Pointer

A derived data type variable that stores the memory address of another variable.

User Defined Data Types

Custom data structures created by programmers to organize data, including structures (struct), unions (union), and enumerations (enum).

Structure (struct)

A user-defined data type that groups related variables of different types under a single name.

Union

A user-defined data type that allows multiple member variables to share the exact same memory location.

Enumeration (enum)

A user-defined data type used to define named integer constants.

Variable

A named memory location used to store a value that can be changed during program execution.

Arithmetic Operators

Operators used to perform mathematical calculations: addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), division (/), and modulus (%).

Relational Operators

Operators used to compare two values, evaluating to $1$ (True) or $0$ (False), such as ==, !=, >, <, >=, and <=.

Logical Operators

Operators used to combine or negate conditions: Logical AND (&&), Logical OR (||), and Logical NOT (!).

Assignment Operators

Operators used to assign values to variables, including shorthand assignment operators such as =, +=, -=, *=, /=, and %=.

Increment and Decrement Operators

Operators ++ and -- used to increase or decrease the value of a variable by $1$.

Bitwise Operators

Operators that perform operations on individual bits of operands, including & (Bitwise AND), ^ (Bitwise XOR), ~ (Bitwise NOT), << (Left Shift), and >> (Right Shift).

Conditional (Ternary) Operator

An operator requiring three operands with syntax condition ? expression1 : expression2 that evaluates expressions based on a condition.

printf() Function

A standard output library function declared in stdio.h used to display formatted text or values on the screen.

scanf() Function

A standard input library function declared in stdio.h used to take formatted input from the user via the keyboard.

Address Operator (&)

An operator used in scanf() to provide the memory address of a variable so the entered value can be stored in that memory location.

Implicit Type Conversion

Automatic type conversion performed by the compiler when converting one data type into another without explicit instructions from the programmer.

Explicit Type Conversion (Type Casting)

Manual type conversion performed explicitly by the programmer using the syntax (data_type) expression.