Learn C programming fundamentals like data types, control flow, functions, pointers, and memory allocation while exploring debugging, profiling, and optimization tools like GDB and gcc.

clang.tar.gz

RunC

RunCwithGNUflags

RunCwithlmflag

Run_go_file 

RunC-without_warning_flag

Compile-only

doNothing

Posix

RunCFileGo

Compile-go-file

Compile-go-debugging-file

OpenMP

Make

MPI4Threads

MPI8Threads

Octave

RunC-without_warning_flag-KS

This comprehensive course covers the fundamentals and advanced concepts of C programming to build a solid foundation for your programming journey. You’ll learn about essential topics like data types, variables, constants, and C statements, along with deeper explorations of control flow in C, including for loops and conditional statements in C. You’ll also learn about C functions, scope of variables, function arguments, and work with arrays, strings, and pointers in C.

You’ll gain hands-on experience with dynamic memory allocation, stack vs. heap, C standard library, and advanced topics such as binary files, input and output streams, and header files. The course also teaches compiling in C, linking in C, and debugging with tools like GNU debugger (GDB) and gprof for code profiling. By mastering these concepts, you’ll confidently program in C and optimize your code using gcc optimization flags.

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# Assigning values to array cells

A memory location indexed by an array (for examples `grades[3]`) is called a **cell** of that array. Just like we index an array to retrieve the value stored in it, we can also write to the same cell.

We can assign the integers 1 through 5 to the cells in our `grades` array like this:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
  int grades[5];
  int i;
  for (i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
    grades[i] = i+1;
    printf("grades[%d] = %d\n", i, grades[i]);
  }
  return 0;
}

dockerforC.tar.gz

What can be dangerous however, is that we can also ask C to assign values to memory locations beyond the bounds of an array, and C won’t complain:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
  int grades[5];
  grades[5] = 999;
  grades[500] = 12345;
  printf("grades[500] = %d\n", grades[5]);
  printf("grades[500] = %d\n", grades[500]);
  return 0;
}

The reason this is dangerous, is that only 20 bytes of memory were set aside for the array yet we are writing to locations in memory that are outside of these boundaries. The location in memory that is 24 bytes beyond the start of the `grades` array (the location accessed by the expression `grades[5]`), and the location in memory that is 2004 bytes beyond the start of the array (the location accessed by the expression `grades[500]`), have not been set aside for the `grades` array. These locations in memory may be used to store other important things. They may correspond to some other variable in our program, or they may be storing some information that’s not even part of our program at all, but is part of the operating system—for example some part of the OS that is controlling the hard disk, or the video screen, or the network, or the fans, etc. By writing our data in memory locations that are not within the bounds of memory that has been set aside by us, anything can happen. 

Imagine writing a C program to control a robot arm. What would happen if we suddenly over-wrote some random location in memory? Nothing good!

# Initializing arrays

In general, we can initialize an array using curly brackets `{}` like this:

Learn how to store values in an array after it has been declared as well as at the time of declaration.

Introduction to C Programming

Data Types in C

C Operators and C Expressions

Control Flow in C

Functions in C

Complex Data Types

Stack vs. Heap

Pointers in C

C string

Input and Output Stream

Macros and the C Preprocessor

Header Files, Compiling and Linking

C Debugger

Code Profiling

Parallel Programming in C

Project: Using a Bootstrapped t-test

Conclusion

Miscellaneous

Appendix: Setting Up the Environment

Writing to Arrays

Assigning values to array cells