C Programming For Dummies

Get an A grade in C

As with any major language, mastery of C can take you to some very interesting new places. Almost 50 years after it first appeared, it's still the world's most popular programming language and is used as the basis of global industry's core systems, including operating systems, high-performance graphics applications, and microcontrollers. This means that fluent C users are in big demand at the sharp end in cutting-edge industries--such as gaming, app development, telecommunications, engineering, and even animation--to translate innovative ideas into a smoothly functioning reality.

To help you get to where you want to go with C, this 2nd edition of C Programming For Dummies covers everything you need to begin writing programs, guiding you logically through the development cycle: from initial design and testing to deployment and live iteration. By the end you'll be au fait with the do's and don'ts of good clean writing and easily able to produce the basic--and not-so-basic--building blocks of an elegant and efficient source code.

• Write and compile source code
• Link code to create the executable program
• Debug and optimize your code
• Avoid common mistakes

Whatever your destination: tech industry, start-up, or just developing for pleasure at home, this easy-to-follow, informative, and entertaining guide to the C programming language is the fastest and friendliest way to get there!

Auteur

Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for more than 30 years?and wrote the very first For Dummies book in 1991! Since then he's written gizmo- and tech innovation-focused bestseller after bestseller, including Word 2019 For Dummies, Android For Dummies, 2nd Edition, and many more!

Texte du rabat

Get an A grade in C As with any major language, mastery of C can take you to some very interesting new places. Almost 50 years after it first appeared, it's still the world's most popular programming language and is used as the basis of global industry's core systems, including operating systems, high-performance graphics applications, and microcontrollers. This means that fluent C users are in big demand at the sharp end in cutting-edge industries--such as gaming, app development, telecommunications, engineering, and even animation--to translate innovative ideas into a smoothly functioning reality. To help you get to where you want to go with C, this 2nd edition of C Programming For Dummies covers everything you need to begin writing programs, guiding you logically through the development cycle: from initial design and testing to deployment and live iteration. By the end you'll be au fait with the do's and don'ts of good clean writing and easily able to produce the basic--and not-so-basic--building blocks of an elegant and efficient source code. Write and compile source code Link code to create the executable program Debug and optimize your code Avoid common mistakes Whatever your destination: tech industry, start-up, or just developing for pleasure at home, this easy-to-follow, informative, and entertaining guide to the C programming language is the fastest and friendliest way to get there!

Contenu

Introduction 1

Why the C Language? 1

The C Programming For Dummies Approach 2

How This Book Works 3

Icons Used in This Book 4

Parting Thoughts 5

**Part 1: The ABs of C/b>

Chapter 1: A Quick Start for the Impatient 9

What You Need to Program 9

Command Prompt Programming 10

IDE Programming 11

Installing Code::Blocks 12

Touring the Code::Blocks workspace 13

Your First Program 14

Coding at the command prompt 15

Building a new Code::Blocks project 16

Building and running 18

Chapter 2: The Programming Thing 21

The History of Programming 21

Reviewing early programming history 21

Introducing the C language 22

The Programming Process 23

Understanding programming 23

Writing source code 24

Compiling and linking 26

Running and testing 27

Chapter 3: Anatomy of C 29

Parts of the C Language 29

Keywords 30

Functions 31

Operators 33

Variables and values 33

Statements and structure 33

Comments 35

Behold the Typical C Program 37

Understanding C program structure 37

Setting the main() function 38

Returning something to the operating system 39

Adding a function 40

Part 2: C Programming 101

Chapter 4: Trials and Errors 45

Display Stuff on the Screen 45

Displaying a humorous message 45

Introducing the puts() function 46

Adding more text 47

Commenting out a statement 49

Goofing up on purpose 49

More Text Output Nonsense 51

Displaying text with printf() 52

Introducing the printf() function 52

Understanding the newline 53

Employing escape sequences 54

Goofing up on purpose again 55

Chapter 5: Values and Simple Math 57

A Venue for Various Values 57

Understanding values 58

Displaying values with printf() 59

Minding the extra zeros 61

The Computer Does the Math 61

Doing simple arithmetic 61

Reviewing the float-integer thing 63

Pretending integers are floats 64

Chapter 6: A Place to Put Stuff 67

Values That Vary 67

Setting up a quick example 68

Introducing data types 69

Using variables 70

Variable Madness! 73

Using more-specific data types 73

Working with several variables 75

Assigning a value upon creation 77

Reusing variables 77

Constants Always the Same 79

Using the same value over and over 79

Constants in your code 80

Putting constants to use 81

Chapter 7: Input and Output 83

Character I/O 83

Understanding input and output devices 83

Fetching characters with getchar() 84

Using the putchar() function 86

Working with character variables 87

Text I/O, but Mostly I 88

Storing strings 89

Introducing the scanf() function 90

Reading a string with scanf() 91

Reading values with scanf() 93

Using fgets() for text input 94

Chapter 8: Decision Making 97

What If? 97

Making a simple comparison 97

Introducing the if keyword 99

Comparing values in various ways 100

Knowing the difference between = and == 102

Forgetting where to put the semicolon 103

Multiple Decisions 104

Making more-complex decisions 104

Adding a third option 105

Multiple Comparisons with Logic 106

Building a logical comparison 106

Adding some logical operators 107

The Old Switch Case Trick 108

Making a multiple-choice selection 108

Understanding the switch-case structure 110

Taking no breaks 111

The Weird ?: Decision Thing 112

Chapter 9: Loops, Loops, Loops 115

A Little D Vu 115

The Thrill of for Loops 116

Doing something x number of times 116

Introducing the for loop 117

Counting with the for statement 119

Looping letters 120

Nesting for loops 121

The Joy of the while Loop 123

Structuring a while loop 123

Using the do while loop 125

Loopy Stuff 126

Looping endlessly 126

Looping endlessly but on purpose 127

Breaking out of a loop 128

Adding multiple for loop conditions 129

Screwing up a loop 130

Chapter 10: Fun with Functions 133

Anatomy of a Function 133

Constructing a function 133

Prototyping (or not) 136

Functions and Variables 139

Using variables in functions 139

Sending a value to a function 140

Sending multiple values to a function 142

Creating functions that return values 143

Returning early 145

Constants of the Global Kind 147

Introducing defined constants 147

Putting defined constants to use 148

Part 3: Build Upon What You Know1

Chapter 11: The Unavoidable Math Chapter 153

Math Operators from Beyond Infinity 153

Incrementing and decrementing 154

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