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Some Useful C Libraries

Some Useful C Libraries

Learn about some external libraries that can greatly enhance C's power.

Since C is such a “small” language, you must typically rely on libraries and APIs for complex tasks (unless you code them up yourself).

Here is a short list of some common libraries that you might find useful:

  • GLib
  • GNU Scientific Library
  • BLAS / LAPACK
  • Apophenia
  • GNUplot

We’ll go through them one by one, starting with GLib.

GLib

The GLib library contains many useful data structures and building blocks that we sort of get “for free” in languages like Matlab and Python—data structures like lists, hash tables (otherwise known as dictionaries), arrays, trees, etc.

Next up, we have GSL, which is used for complex calculations.

GSL

The GNU Scientific Library (GSL) provides a ...