Outline of the C programming language

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to C:

C is a general-purpose programming language, procedural programming language, compiled language, and statically typed programming language. It was created by Dennis Ritchie in 1972 at Bell Labs as a successor to the B programming language. ^[1]

What type of language is C?

C can be described as all of the following:

• Programming language — artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer.
• Compiled language — language implemented through compilers rather than interpreters
• Procedural programming language — programming paradigm based on the concept of procedure calls
• General-purpose programming language — designed for writing software in a wide variety of application domains
• Statically typed programming language — type checking is performed at compile-time ^{[2] [3]}

History of C

• B programming language — precursor to C
• K&R C — early version described by Kernighan and Ritchie
• ANSI C / ISO C standards: ^[4]
  • C89/C90
  • C99
  • C11
  • C17
  • C23 — current standard ^[5]

General C concepts

See also: C syntax

• Callback ^[6]
• Control flow ^{[7] [8]}
• Pointers in C
• Dynamic memory allocation
• Data types in C
• Enumeration ^[9]
• File input/output
• Functions ^[10]
• Header files
• Memory management in C
• Operators in C
• Preprocessor directives
• Recursion ^[11]
• Standard streams
• Static variable ^[12]
• C string handling
• Structs in C
• Type conversion
• Undefined behavior
• Unions in C
• Variables in C ^[13]

Issues / Limitations

• Constructs that behave differently in C and C++
• Cyber security ^[14]
• Undefined behavior

C Toolchain

See also: List of C software and tools

C compilers

See also: List of C compilers

• GCC — GNU Compiler Collection
• Clang — LLVM C compiler
• MSVC — Microsoft Visual C++ compiler (supports C)
• TinyCC
• Turbo C

C libraries

See also: List of open-source code libraries

C Standard Library

Main article: C standard library

The C standard library provides fundamental routines for: ^[15]

• Input/output (stdio.h)
• String handling (string.h)
• Mathematical computations (math.h)
• Memory management (stdlib.h)
• Time and date (time.h)

Other notable libraries

• GLib
• SDL
• GSL
• libcurl
• OpenSSL

Notable projects written in C

• CPython — the reference implementation of the Python programming language
• Git — version control system
• Linux kernel
• Lua
• PostgreSQL — relational database system
• Redis — in-memory database
• SQLite — embedded database engine
• Unix — originally rewritten in C at Bell Labs
• Vim

Example source code

• Articles with example C code

C publications

Books about C

• Andrew Koenig – C Traps and Pitfalls
• Brian W. Kernighan – The C Programming Language
• Guy L. Steele Jr. – C: A Reference Manual
• Herbert Schildt – C, The Complete Reference
• Peter van der Linden – Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets

Magazines about C

• C/C++ Users Journal — (historical publication)

C programmers

• John Carmack – game programmer, known for Doom and Quake.
• Brian Kernighan — wrote The C Programming Language book
• Rob Pike – worked on Unix and Plan 9, contributed to C and its ecosystem.
• Dennis Ritchie — created the C programming language
• Richard Stallman – founder of the GNU Project
• Tim Sweeney – founder of Epic Games and creator of Unreal Engine
• Ken Thompson — Unix
• Linus Torvalds — Linux

C dialects

• Cyclone — safe variant
• Embedded C
• GNU C — features specific to GCC
• K&R C
• Microsoft C — Microsoft-specific extensions
• Objective-C — object-oriented extension of C

C learning resources

See also: List of online integrated development environments

• Codecademy – interactive C programming lessons
• GeeksforGeeks – tutorials, coding examples, and interactive programming for C concepts and data structures
• Learn-C.org – free interactive C tutorial for beginners
• CProgramming.com Tutorial – tutorials, examples, and best practices for learning C ^[16]
• W3Schools – beginner-friendly C tutorials
• Wikibooks C Programming – free open-content textbook

Competitive programming

• Codeforces – an online platform for programming contests that supports C submissions
• Codewars – gamified coding challenges
• HackerRank – competitive programming and interview preparation site with C challenges
• LeetCode – online judge and problem-solving platform

See also

• Compatibility of C and C++
• List of software programming journals
• List of C-family programming languages
• Outline of computer programming
• Outline of software
• Outline of software engineering

Outlines of other programming languages

• Outline of the C sharp programming language
• Outline of the C++ programming language
• Outline of the Java programming language
• Outline of the JavaScript programming language
• Outline of the Perl programming language
• Outline of the Python programming language
• Outline of the Rust programming language

References

1. "Introduction to C". W3Schools.
2. "C Programming Language - FASRC DOCS". docs.rc.fas.harvard.edu. April 29, 2024.
3. "What is C (programming language)? | Definition from TechTarget". SearchWindows Server.
4. Ritchie, Dennis M. (1988). The C Programming Language (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN   0-13-110362-8.
5. "Standard in C". GeeksforGeeks. January 10, 2014.
6. "Callbacks in C". GeeksforGeeks. October 18, 2017.
7. "Control flow statements in Programming". GeeksforGeeks. March 4, 2024.
8. "C Control Flow Examples". www.programiz.com.
9. "Enumeration (or enum) in C". GeeksforGeeks. October 31, 2014.
10. "Functions in C". GeeksforGeeks. October 9, 2022.
11. "C/Recursion". www.cs.yale.edu.
12. "Static Variables in C". GeeksforGeeks. July 3, 2015.
13. "Integralist". www.integralist.co.uk.
14. "Security issues in C language". GeeksforGeeks. November 10, 2021.
15. "C Library Functions". GeeksforGeeks. July 18, 2021.
16. "C Programming Tutorial". cprogramming.com.

External links

• ISO C standard information
• C reference on cppreference.com