C Programming Course

This C Programming track on TechLearningPRO walks you from writing your first printf through pointers, manual memory management, files, and low-level systems topics.

C is a procedural, compiled language.

A productive C setup needs three pieces: a compiler toolchain (GCC or Clang), an editor you are comfortable in, and a shell for build commands.

The usual workflow is edit source in a file, invoke the compiler from a shell, then launch the binary it produces.

The C compilation process transforms source code into an executable through preprocessing, compilation, assembly, and linking.

Identifiers are names for variables, functions, and types.

Keywords are reserved words with special meaning — int, return, if, while, struct, etc.

Console I/O lives in stdio.h: formatted output with printf and formatted input with scanf.

Variables are named regions of memory with a fixed type.

Types tell the compiler how to interpret bits — integers, characters, and floating-point forms each have rules for size, range, and printf/scanf specifiers.

Quiz: Basics | Variables | Data Types checks how well you can apply Valid vs invalid identifiers and Size of int and char on your system (and related ideas) in C.

Operators combine values — arithmetic for math, relational and logical for decisions, bitwise for flags, and compound assignment for updates in place.

Quiz: Input and Output | Operators checks how well you can apply printf with multiple specifiers and scanf with & for integers (and related ideas) in C.

Branching chooses which block runs — chained if/else for ranges, switch when matching one integral value against many labels.

Loops rerun a block — for when you know the trip count, while when you only know the stop condition, do-while when the body must run at least once.

Quiz: Conditional Statements and Loops checks how well you can apply if-else ladder for grade ranges and switch without break behavior (and related ideas) in C.

Functions package logic behind a name and parameter list so you can reuse behavior and keep main() readable.

Arguments are copied by default.

The main function is the entry point of every C program.

Recursion is when a function calls itself.

Inline Function builds on this idea: inline as a hint to embed bodies at call sites.

Nested Functions builds on this idea: GCC nested definitions — non-standard but occasionally seen.

Quiz: Functions checks how well you can apply Function prototype purpose and Return type void (and related ideas) in C.

An array holds multiple values of one type in a single, contiguous block of memory.

A multidimensional array stores data in two or more dimensions — commonly 2D arrays for matrices and grids.

Text in C is a char array terminated by a zero byte.

String functions from string.h — strlen, strcpy, strcat, strcmp, and safer variants strncpy, strncat.

Quiz: Arrays | Strings checks how well you can apply Index of first and last element and Null terminator in strings (and related ideas) in C.

A pointer variable records an address.

Pointer arithmetic moves pointers by sizeof(type) — p+1 points to the next element in an array.

Pointer to Pointer builds on this idea: Double indirection for dynamic 2D data and argv.

Function Pointers builds on this idea: Store call targets for callbacks and dispatch tables.

Quiz: Pointers checks how well you can apply Difference between & and * and Pointer arithmetic on int* (and related ideas) in C.

A structure (struct) groups related variables of different types under one name — ideal for records like Student or Point.

A union shares one memory block among members — size equals largest member; only one member active at a time.

enum defines named integer constants — improves readability over raw numbers.

Quiz: Structure & Union checks how well you can apply Memory layout of struct and Union size equals largest member (and related ideas) in C.

A C program's memory layout includes text (code), data (globals), BSS (uninitialized globals), heap (dynamic), and stack (locals, calls).

Dynamic memory allocation reserves memory at runtime on the heap using malloc, calloc, realloc, and releases it with free.

A memory leak occurs when heap memory is allocated but never freed — program loses access while memory stays reserved.

Quiz: Memory Management checks how well you can apply Stack vs heap and When to use calloc vs malloc (and related ideas) in C.

File handling in C uses FILE pointers — fopen to open, fclose to close, and fprintf/fscanf or fread/fwrite for data.

Read a File builds on this idea: Line and block reads from disk.

Read/Write Structure From/to a File builds on this idea: Binary persistence with fread/fwrite.

EOF, getc() and feof() builds on this idea: Detecting end-of-file while reading char by char.

Delete a File builds on this idea: remove() and filesystem cleanup.

Quiz: File Handling checks how well you can apply fopen modes r and w and feof vs ferror (and related ideas) in C.

Error Handling builds on this idea: Return codes, errno, perror, strerror.

Exception Handling Using goto builds on this idea: Centralized cleanup without C++ exceptions.

File Error Handling builds on this idea: Guard every fopen and check ferror/feof.

Divide by Zero Exception builds on this idea: Validate divisors — C does not catch this for you.

The preprocessor runs before compilation — handles #include, #define, #ifdef, and conditional compilation.

Macros are preprocessor text replacements — object-like (#define MAX 100) and function-like (#define SQR(x) ((x)*(x))).

Quiz: Preprocessors and Macros checks how well you can apply Macro vs const variable and Include guard pattern (and related ideas) in C.

Header Files builds on this idea: Split interfaces (.h) from implementations (.c).

Date and Time builds on this idea: time.h utilities for clocks and formatting.

Linkage builds on this idea: Which translation units may see a symbol.

Storage classes — auto (local default), register (hint), static (persistent/block scope), extern (global linkage).

Quiz: Storage Classes checks how well you can apply static local retention and extern linkage (and related ideas) in C.

Variadic Functions builds on this idea: Variable argument lists via stdarg.h.

Input-Output System Calls builds on this idea: Unix read/write on file descriptors.

Signals builds on this idea: Asynchronous notifications such as SIGINT.

Socket Programming builds on this idea: Network endpoints with the BSD socket API.

_Generics Keyword builds on this idea: C11 _Generic for type-selected macros.

Multithreading in C often uses POSIX pthreads — create threads, share address space, synchronize with mutexes.