If you’ve recently enrolled in your Computer Science course and are eager to start with one of the easiest programming languages, the C Programming Language, your initial focus should be on becoming acquainted with the “C Syntax Rules.”
Similar to any other programming language, there is also a set of specific rules present in the C Language. Without a grasp of these rules, crafting a simple C program becomes a challenging task. Therefore, it’s crucial to understand these concepts before venturing into writing any C program.
Still if you have any doubts related to any C programming concepts then you can always rely on CodingZap’s C Programming Help services, and we will make sure that all your doubts are cleared.
So, lets go!
What Is The Basic Syntax & Syntax Error In C Language?
In any natural language or spoken language, there are certain grammar rules are present, right? These grammar rules are used to make sentences, and with the sentences, a paragraph gets created. In the C Language, there are certain rules are present which help to make any C Program.
These C Language Rules are also known as Grammar. These Grammars are widely recognized as the C Syntax. If you forget to use any one of the rules to implement your C Program, you will be notified of a Syntax Error. We will discuss this matter deeply in later sections.
Based on the Syntax Error, there are two possible types present. One is the Compilation Error and another is the Run Time Error. But, you should not have to worry about the Compilation Error and Run Time Error. For the time being, let us focus on the basic syntax of any C program.
What Is The Default Syntax For C Program?
Now, let us first start with the default syntax declaration of any C program. As you are going through such points for the first time, you might find the discussion is so much more difficult. But wait! You will get all the things when we reach the end point of the article.
For the time being, we have to look at the following C Program Code which we have divided into some parts. We will discuss all of these parts one by one after the C program.
The C Program To Demonstrate The Default Syntax Declaration Process In C:
#include <stdio.h> // Declaration Of Header Files
int main() // Creating Main Function Without Parameter Declarations
{ // Starting Of The Program Body
printf("Default C Syntaxx"); // A Valid Statement, Not A Blank Statement
return 0; // Declaration Return Values
} // Ending Of The Program Body
Now, we have to understand the divisions that we have made in the above code. The above program consists of four different parts or categories. We will elaborate on all of these categories below.
Header Files: The Header Files are the main driving force of any C program. if there are no Header Files present, the C program will get the Syntax Error issue. In the Header Filees, we included many library functions made for the C program to execute & to use any specific operation.
Int Main Function: After the Header Files, the Int Main Function Declaration process will be completed. In the Int Main Function, whatever we want to execute in the C Program needs to be written. If the Int Main Function consists of only a Blank Line, the C program will not execute.
C Program Statement: In the above code, after the Int Main Function declaration, we can write the piece of code that should be executed. We can declare any data type in the Int Main Function. For example, we can declare an integer variable for printing a number table.
Return Value: The Return Value is the necessary thing in the C Program. If any Main Function is declared as an Int Main Function, then the Return Value should be provided. If the program consists only Main Function, then we should not include the return value.
Do remember all of these points for writing any C program. You have to necessarily add these points to any program to make the program execute correctly.
What Are C Program Tokens?
In the C programming language whatever, we define in the Int Main Function of the code will be defined as the Tokens. Each & every element will be considered here as the token. It might be a variable, data type, blank line, string literal, etc.
The C Program To Understand The C Programming Tokens:
#include <stdio.h> // Declaration Of Header Files
int main() // Creating Main Function Without Parameter Declarations
{ // Starting Of The Program Body Without Blank Line
int i; // First Statement
printf("Default C Syntaxx"); // Second Statement
return 0; // Declaration Return Values
} // Ending Of The Program Body
In the above C program, we can see that in the Int Main Function, a set of statements is declared. Now, we know that the tokens are the things that are declared in the Int Main Function. So, the tokens generated from the above code are the following:
Case 1: From The First Statement:
In the very First Statement, we have written the “int i” statement. So, the token from this statement will be the int, i, and ;
Case 2: From The Second Statement:
In the second statement, we have used the keyword printf() for printing any certain line. So, the Tokens from that statement will be as printf, (, “CodingZap”, ) and ;
What Are C Program Identifiers?
Now, we should move with the C Program Identifier details. The C Program Identifier & the C Program Tokens are two different things. The tokens are the entire elements that will be present in the Main Function. But, the Identifiers are different things.
While working on the C programming language, you have to declare multiple variables with custom names. The Identifier is used to provide the rules for declaring the name of the variable. There are some restrictions present while providing the names of the variables, functions, etc.
While declaring the variable name, you can’t use the special characters in the program. The special characters are $, @, or %. Also, the C program is a Case-Sensitive Language. So, the variations in lower & upper case characters will act as different things.
The C Program To Demonstrate The C Program Identifiers:
#include <stdio.h> // Declaration Of Header Files
int main() // Creating Main Function
{ // Starting Of The Program Body Without Blank Line
int Codingzap; // First Variable
int codingZap; // Second Variable
int CodingZap; // Third Variable
int Codingzap2023; // Fourth Variable
int Codingzap@; // Will Not Be A Variable
} // Ending Of The Program Body
From the above piece, you can see we have defined the ‘CodingZap’ variable four times using the combination of Lower and Upper Case. In the C program, all the first four variables will be the correct one as it is case-sensitive language.
However, the last one will not be the correct variable as the special Character @ is used in the declaration process.
What Are Keywords In C Program?
In C language, there are a lot of elements that are reserved words. That means you can’t use those names to declare any variable in the program. If you want to do so, the Syntax Error or Compilation error will occur in the code.
With the tons of keywords we are going to define, it will be a bit lengthy. So, we have divided the keywords based on the fields where those are mainly used. From that, you will have a light idea for which cases, the keywords can be used. The list is the following.
C Language Keywords For Function or Variable Declaration:
Here, we will discuss the Keywords that are highly used to define any variable in the code. Also, these keywords can be used to declare the return & argument type of any function. Do check the following list to know all the keywords.
int
long
short
signed
unsigned
void
char
typedef
static
auto
const
double
float
C Language Keywords For Structure And Class Declaration:
Now, it is time to discuss those keywords that are highly associated with the Structure and Classes concept in the C Language. You can be more assured that these keywords are not basically used for the variable declaration process.
register
structure
class
volatile
union
extern
enum
C Language Keywords For Conditional Statement Declaration:
Another set of keywords is present that is mainly used for the conditional statement declaration process. That means, for the if-else statement or the Switch Case statement the keywords are used. Some of the keywords are termed the Jumping Statement.
break
while
for
switch
return
continue
default
else
if
What Are The Comments In C program?
In C Language, there is a special feature present. However, such features can be seen in every kind of programming language. Suppose, you have written a large C program. Now, you have shared the program with another one.
To make the process easy you have to provide comments in the program. For a simple single line, provide the Single Line Comment (//) in the Code. Otherwise, go for the Multi-Line Comment (/*) for multiple lines in the program.
The C Program To Demonstrate The C Program Identifiers:
#include <stdio.h> // Declaration Of Header Files
int main() // Creating Main Function
{ // Starting Of The Program Body Without Blank Line
// int i; It Is The Single Comment
/* int codingZap;
int CodingZap; This Is The Multiple Line Comment */
} // Ending Of The Program Body
In the above code, we can see that the first statement is marked as a Single Line Comment by providing the symbol “//” at the beginning of the line. So, the entire statement becomes a comment which will not be parsed in the compilation process.
Again the second & third statements are marked with the symbols “/* & */”. That means the multiple lines between these two symbols will become comments. These comments will not influence the compilation of the code.
What Is The Requirement Of Whitespace Separates In C Program?
In C Language, the use of Whitespaces should be done in an effective manner. The need for whitespace might seem negligible, but we simply can’t remove it from the code. The Whitespaces eventually promotes the Indentation of the C program.
If you do not provide the necessary whitespace after writing any word in the code, the program looks very ugly & dirty. And others will not get what you have written inside the code which gives a bad impression on your profile.
The C Program To Define The Need Of Whitespcaces In C Program:
#include <stdio.h> // Declaration Of Header Files
int main() // Creating Main Function
{ // Starting Of The Program Body Without Blank Line
inti=10; // Statement Without Whitespace
int i = 10; // Statement With Whitespace
} // Ending Of The Program Body
In the above piece of code, two statements are identical. Whatever the written in the the first statement, the same is written in the second statement. But in the first statement, there is no whitespace. So, it seems very difficult to understand which one is the variable and Data Type.
Whereas, in the second case one can easily read the entire thing & understand what the programmer wants to do in the program. In the second statement, we have written with the use of whitespace.
So, now you can understand the power of Whitespace in programming languages.
How Does The Statement Ends In The C Program?
Now, as we are approaching the end of the discussion, let us discuss the process to end any C program. What is the method to close the program & execute the code to get the output? The tool to mark the end of the C Statement is the Semicolon (;).
If there is no Semicolon (;) after the declaration of any statement, the line will not be closed. And the program will pass an error to the programmer. You will be surprised to know every beginner of the programming language course falls into this error.
The C Program To Define The Ending of Any Program With Semicolon:
#include <stdio.h> // Declaration Of Header Files
int main() // Creating Main Function
{ // Starting Of The Program Body Without Blank Line
int i = 10; // Statement With Semicolon
int i = 10 // Statement Without Semicolon
} // Ending Of The Program Body
In the above code, we have declared two statements. In the first statement, the statement ends with one Semicolon. So, there will be no issue with the statement as it gets closed normally. But in the case of the second one, we have not used any semicolon to close it.
As a result, the statement is going to flag one error in the code. As a fresher, you can’t easily identify the error, that has occurred in the code. So, always try to end the line with a semicolon without forgetting it.
Bonus Note: What Is The C Syntax For If Statement?
We have ended the discussion related to the basic syntax of the C coding language. But before ending the discussion, we want to push you towards a bit more advanced topic, the syntax of the If Statement. The IF Statement is used as the conditional statement that helps to execute any decision.
The Syntax of the If Statement works with one condition which is present beside the IF keyword. If the condition is satisfied the body under the condition will be executed.
General Syntax: if(condition)
The C Program To Define The C Syntax For If Statement:
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int i = 10; // Variable Declaration
if(i>0) // If Condition
{
printf("It Is Possitive"); // Body Statement
}
return 0;
}
In the code, we can see that the condition is placed after the IF statement. If the Condition is true, then the Body Statement will be executed. Let us check the output of the above Code.
Output:
From the above output, we can see that the condition becomes true. That is the reason, the body statement under the condition gets executed. The print statement is visible in the output window.
Conclusion:
As we saw, it is very important to understand the “C Syntax Rules” carefully.
Always remember and engrain those points forever until you become an expert in writing a C program. You have to practice these points a maximum of times in order to remember them forever. Otherwise, you will forget them after some time.
It is advisable to go through this topic & article multiple times before jumping to solving programming questions related to the C language. If you get these points easily, the development of logic to solve problems will become a breeze for you.
If you ever find yourself in need of help with programming homework, don’t hesitate to reach out for assistance. At CodingZap, we have a team of ace coders ready to lend a hand and ensure you excel in your programming assignments.
