First C Program

Write down the following program in a text editor.

Example: First C Program

#include <stdio.h>
void main()
{
   printf(“\n Welcome to TutorialRide”);
}


Output:
Welcome to TutorialRide

In the above program

#include <stdio.h>
  • It is the preprocessor command. It is the first statement of the program.
  • It starts with a hash (#) symbol.
  • The #include will tell the compiler to include the standard input/output library file (stdio.h).
  • The above file also has some built-in functions. By simply adding this file we can directly use the functions.
void main()
void will not return anything to the main() function. If a parenthesis is not placed after the 'main', there will be a compilation error.

{ }
  • The curly brackets are used for grouping together all the statements.
  • These statements together form the function body.
  • They can be called as a set of instructions that are used for performing a given set of tasks.
printf(“\n Welcome to TutorialRide”);
  • The printf function is already defined in the stdio.h file.
  • It is used for printing the text on the screen.
  • Whatever message needs to be printed should be enclosed in double quotes inside brackets.
  • '\n' is an escape character which represents a newline character.
Other escape characters are as follows:

Escape SequencePurpose
\aAudible signal
\bIt creates a backspace
\tTab
\nNewline
\fNew page\Clear screen
\rCarriage return
\?Question mark
\\Back slash
\'Single quote
\”Double quote
\0Octal constant
\xHexadecimal constant

Compilation and Execution of a C program

Every programming language has its own compiler.

Process of compilation and execution:
  • The process starts with the source file and ends with the executable file.
  • A source file is created which consists of statements written in C.
  • The source file is then processed by the compiler.
  • Compiler will translate the source code into object code. Object code contains the machine instructions for the CPU and calls the operating system API.
  • The object file is not an executable file.
  • The object file is then processed with a linker.
  • There can be different compilers for the program but has a same linker for the object files.
  • The output of this linker will be an executable file.
Following diagram explains us modular programming where the source code is divided into two or more source files . The source files are compiled separately which in turn produces multiple object files. These object files are combined by the linker for producing an executable file.

compilation process