C Language

Material

-By

G.S.PRAVEENA
Page2
Index

1. Basics of programming fundamentals 03

2. Functions and Pointers 09

3. Pre-processor 11

4. Arrays 12

5. String Functions 14

6. Structures 15

7. I/O Function 17

8. Files 19

9. Dynamic Memory Allocation 21

10. Sorting Techniques 23

11. Sample programs 27

Page2
C Language Material:
BASICS OF PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS:
1. What are the important aspects (properties) of programming
language?

Four important aspects of any language are the way it stores data, the way it
operates upon this data, how it accomplishes input and output and how it lets
you control the sequence of execution of instructions in a program.

2. What is problem solving?

Problem solving is a creative process. It is an act of defining a problem,

determining the cause of the problem, identifying, prioritizing, and selecting
alternatives for a solution and implementing a solution.

3. What are the steps involved in program development?

The various steps involved in Program Development are:

a. Defining or Analyzing e. Compiling and Running

the problem the Program

b. Design (Algorithm) f. Testing and Debugging

c. Coding g. Maintenance

d. Documenting the
program

4. How do you analyse the problem?

Tasks in defining a problem:

Specifying the input requirements.

Specifying the output requirements and

Specifying the processing requirements.

5. What is design and how to design a program?

A design is the path from the problem to a solution in code.

Program Design is both a product and a process. The process
results in a theoretical framework for describing the effects
and consequences of a program as they are related to its
development and implementation.

6. What is algorithm?
Page2
 An algorithm is a step-by-step description of the solution to a
problem. It is defined as an ordered sequence of well-defined
and effective operations which, when carried out for a given
set of initial conditions, produce output, and terminate in a
finite time. The term “ordered sequence” specifies, after the
completion of each step in the algorithm, the next step must
be unambiguously defined.

An algorithm must be: Definite, Finite, Precise and Effective

and Implementation independent ( only for problem not for
programming languages).

7. What is pseudo code?

Pseudo code is an informal high-level description of an

algorithm that uses the structural conventions of
programming languages, but omits language-specific syntax.
It is an outline of a program written in English or the user's
natural language.

8. What is flow chart? Explain the symbols used?

Flowchart is a diagrammatic representation of an algorithm. It

uses different symbols to represent the sequence of
operations, required to solve a problem. It serves as a
blueprint or a logical diagram of the solution to a problem.

9. What is coding?

An algorithm expressed in programming languages is called

Program. Writing a program is called Coding. The logic that
has been developed in the algorithm is used to write the
program.

10. What is documentation? What is the need of

documenting the program?

Documentation explains how the program works and how to

use the program. Documentation can be of great value, not
only to those involved in maintaining or modifying a program,
but also to the programmers themselves. Details of particular
programs, or particular pieces of programs, are easily
forgotten or confused without suitable documentation.
Documentation comes in two forms:
* External documentation, which includes things such as
reference manuals, algorithm descriptions, flowcharts, and
project workbooks
* Internal documentation, which is part of the source code
itself (essentially, the declarations, statements, and
comments)
Page2

11. What is need of compiling the program?

Compilation is a process of translating a source program into
machine understandable form. The compiler is system
software, which does the translation after examining each
instruction for its correctness. The translation results in the
creation of object code. After compilation, Linking is done if
necessary. Linking is the process of putting together all the
external references (other program files and functions) that
are required by the program. The program is now ready for
execution. During execution, the executable object code is
loaded into the computer’s memory and the program
instructions are executed.

12. What is testing?

Testing is the process of executing a program with the

deliberate intent of finding errors. Testing is needed to check
whether the expected output matches the actual output.
Program should be tested with all possible input data and
control conditions. Testing is done during every phase of
program development. Initially, requirements can be tested
for its correctness. Then, the design (algorithm, flow charts)
can be tested for its exactness and efficiency. Structured walk
through is made to verify the design.

13. What is debugging?

Debugging is a process of correcting the errors. Programs may

have logical errors which cannot be caught during
compilation. Debugging is the process of identifying their root
causes. One of the ways to ensure the correctness of the
program is by printing out the intermediate results at strategic
points of computation. Debugging is the hardest part of
programming because of improper documentation.

14. What is the difference between debugging and

testing?

Testing means detecting errors. Debugging means diagnosing

and correcting the root causes.

15. What is a Programming Language?

Computer Programming is an art of making a computer to do

the required operations, by means of issuing sequence of
commands to it.

16. What are the types of programming languages?

There are two major types of programming languages:

Low Level Languages and High Level Languages.

Page2

17. What is C?
C is a programming language developed at AT & T’s Bell
Laboratories of USA in 1972. It was designed and written by a
man named Dennis Ritchie. It is often know as middle level
language as it inherits both the features of high level and low
level language.

18. What are the characteristics of c languages?

Characteristics of C Language
The increasing popularity of C is due to its various desirable
qualities:
*C language is well suited for structured modular
programming.
* C is a robust language with rich set of built-in functions and
operators.
* C is smaller which has minimal instruction set and programs
written in C are efficient and fast.
* C is highly portable (code written in one machine can be
moved to other).
* C is highly flexible.
* C allows access to the machine at bit level (Low level
(Bitwise) programming).
* C supports pointer implementation - extensive use of
pointers for memory, array, structures and functions.

19. What are called escape sequence?

Escape sequences are non printable characters, which begin

with backward slash and followed by one or more special
characters. The frequently used escape sequences are given
below:
Horizontal tab (\t) Form feed (\f)
Vertical tab (\v) Back Space (\b)
Carriage return (\r) Back Slash (\\)
New line (\n) Null (\0)

20. Define a constant?

A constant is an entity that doesn’t change. A constant in C

refers to the fixed values that do not change during the
execution of a program.
There are two types of constants:
Symbolic constants and Constant variables, also called read-
only variables.

21. How many types of constants are there? What are

they?

There are mainly two types of constants

a. Primary (integer, float, char)

Page2

b. Secondary (array, pointer, structure, union)

22. Define the term Variable.

Variable is a named memory location. It can store one value at

a time. Every time new value is assigned, the old value is
overwritten

23. Define datatype.

Data types are used to indicate the type of value represented

or stored in a variable, the number of bytes to be reserved in
memory, the range of values that can be represented in
memory, and the type of operation that can be performed on
a particular data item.

24. Define the term “key word”. Why can’t we use key
word as variable’s name?

Keywords are the words whose meaning has already been

explained to the C compiler (or in a broad sense to the
computer). The keywords cannot be used as variable names
because if we do so we are trying to assign a new meaning to
the keyword, which is not allowed by the computer.

25. What is an identifier?

Identifiers are names given to various programming elements

such as variables, constants, and functions. It should start
with an alphabet, followed by the combinations of alphabets
and digits. No special character is allowed except underscore
(_). An Identifier can be of arbitrarily long. Some
implementation of C recognizes only the first eight characters
and some other recognize first 32 characters.

26. How many no. of keywords are there in C language?

What are the different control structures available in
C?

There are 32 keywords available in C language. The decision

control statements are: if statement, if-else statement and the
conditional operator.

27. What are the different operators available in c?

The following are the different operators available in C:

Arithmetic operators Assignment operators
Relational operators Unary operators
Logical operators Bitwise operators

28. What is the “Order of Precedence”?

Page2
_______________________________________________________________
_________

Operator Name
Association

_______________________________________________________________
_________

( ) [ ] -> . Parentheses, Index, member access operators

Left to Right

! – sizeof()

(Typecast) * & Logical NOT, unary minus, indirection, address

Right to Left

++ -- Increment and decrement operators.

Right to Left

*/% Multiplicative operators. Left

to Right

+- Additive operators.
Left to Right

< > <= >= Inequality comparators.

Left to Right

== != Equality comparators
Left to Right

&& Logical AND.

Left tot Right

|| Logical OR. Left

to Right

?: Conditional.
Right to Left

= op= Assignment.
Right to Left

, Comma Left
to Right

_______________________________________________________________
__________

29. What is typecasting?

Page2
C provides a mechanism for allowing the programmer to
change the default data type of a given expression. This is
called Typecasting. Typecasting allows a variable to behave
like a variable of another type.
C provides two types of type conversions: Implicit and Explicit
type conversions.

30. Name different IF statements.

The if statement has three basic forms: Simple if-else, Nested

if and if-else if ladder.

31. What is Short circuit evaluation?

Whenever the expression with the operators && and || are

evaluated, the evaluation process stops as soon as the
outcome, true or false is known.

32. What is the hierarchy of operators?

Operators Type
! Logical NOT
*/% Arithmetic and modulus
+- Arithmetic
< > <= >= Relational
== != Relational
&& Logical AND
|| Logical OR
= Assignment

33. What is a conditional operator (ternary operator)?

What is its syntax?

It is shortened form of if-statement and its syntax:

Expression 1? Expression 2 : expression 3

34. What are the different types of loop control

instructions available in C?

There are 3 loop control instructions. Those are

1. For

2. While

3. Do...while

35. How does a loop work?

The loop (loop control instruction) involves repeating some

portion of the program either a specified number of times or
Page2

until a particular condition is being satisfied.

36. What is the use of BREAK statement?

When break is encountered inside any loop, control

automatically passes to the first statement after the loop. A
break is usually associated with an if.

37. What is the use of continue statement?

If we want to take the control to the beginning of the loop,

bypassing the statements inside the loop, which have not yet
been executed. The keyword continue allows us to do this.
When continue is encountered inside any loop, control
automatically passes to the beginning of the loop. A continue
is usually associated with an if.

38. What is the difference between an entry controlled

loop and an exit controlled loop?

If the condition of the loop is tested before the control enters

into the loop then it is called entry control loop (While)and if
the condition is tested at exit then it is exit controlled loop(do-
while).

39. What is switch statement?

The control statement that allows us to make a decision from

the number of choices is called a switch, or more correctly a
switch-case-default

40. What is the need of break statement in switch?

If the break is not used in a case statement the control will not
come out of the switch and it goes executing the following
cases till it encounters a break otherwise it all the statements
in the switch.

41. What is goto statement?

Takes the control where ever you want, is done by using goto
statement. Better don’t use it.

42. Why is goto statement not preferred in

programming?

The big problem with goto’s is that when we do use them we

can never be sure how we got to a certain point in our code.
They obscure the flow of control.

43. What does a exit () function do?

The exit ( ) function is a standard library function which

Page2

terminates the execution of the program.

FUNCTIONS AND POINTERS
44. What is a function?

A function is a self-contained block of statements that perform

a coherent task of some kind.

45. Why do we use functions?

We use functions because

1. Writing functions avoids rewriting the same code
over and over.
2. Using functions it becomes easier to write programs
and keep track of what they are doing. If the
operation of a program can be divided into separate
activities, and each activity placed in a different
function, then each could be written and checked
more or less independently.

46. What is the mechanism used to convey message to

the function?

The mechanism used to convey information to the function is

the ‘argument’.

47. What are the different parameter passing

mechanisms available?

There are two parameter passing mechanism available. Those

are: Call by value and Call by address

48. What is the use of return statement?

The return statement serves two purposes.

1. On executing the return statement it immediately transfers
the control back to the calling program.
2. It returns the value present in the parentheses after return,
to the calling program. In the above program the value of sum
of three numbers is being returned

49. What is the default return type any function?

The default return type of any function is int.

50. What is call by value mechanism?

Whenever we called a function and passed something to it we

have always passed the ‘values’ of variables to the called
function. Such function calls are called ‘calls by value’. By this
we mean, on calling a function we are passing values of
variables to it.
Page2

51. What is a pointer?

Pointer is a variable which holds the address of another
variable.

52. What is recursion?

A function is called ‘recursive’ if a statement within the body

of a function calls the same function.

53. Explain the terms associated with a function.

Take a function as below

Void main()
{
Int n,p;
Int reverse (int);/* function prototype*/
Set of statements;
n=reverse (p); /* function is called with actual
parameters*/
Set of statements;
}

Int reverse(int n)/* function heading with formal

parameters*/
{
Set of statements;
Return(x); /* control goes back to calling
function*/
}

1. In the above code snippet main () is calling function

because the function reverse is called and reverse is called
function
2. If a function (here reverse ()) is written below main () its
prototype must be included in the calling function otherwise it
should be declared globally so that the function call does not
raise any error. It informs the compiler about the function.
3. The parameters present in the function call are called
actual parameters and the parameters which are there in
function heading are formal parameters
4. Return statement in function is the last executable
statement. If we write any statements after if those are not
going to be executed
5. Return type of a function is the type of value that is
returned by the function in the present example int is the
return type because reverse function returns int.

54. What is the main difference between call by value

and call by reference (address)?

The difference between call by value and call by address is

1. The changes made to formal parameters are not reflected
Page2

in the calling function in the call by value. Where as in the call

by address changes will be reflected
2. By using call by value at most we can change a single value
by return statement from called function where as by the use
of call by address we can change many values in the calling
function

55. What is the difference among int, short and long

data types?

Short is at least 2 bytes big, long is at least 4 bytes big, short

is never bigger than int’s and int’s are never bigger than
longs.

56. What is the difference between int and unsigned

int?

Declaring an integer as unsigned almost doubles the size of

the largest possible value that it can otherwise take.

57. What does a storage class tell us?

A storage class tells us:

1. Where the variable would be stored.

2. What will be the initial value of the variable, if initial value is

not specifically assigned? (i.e. the default initial value).

3. What is the scope of the variable; i.e. in which functions the

value of the variable would be available.

4. What is the life of the variable; i.e. how long would the
variable exist.

58. What are the different classes available in C?

There are 4 storage classes available in c. Those are

Automatic storage class (local) (default value is garbage)

Register storage class (default value is garbage)
Static storage class (default value is zero)
External storage class (global) (default value is zero)

59. When do we use a static variable?

Use static storage class only if you want the value of a

variable to persist between different function calls.

60. When do we register variables? Give an example.

Use register storage class for only those variables that are
being used very often in a program. A typical application of
register storage class is loop counters, which get used a
number of times in a program.
Page2
PRE PROCESSOR
61. What is a pre processor?

It is a program that processes our source program before it is

passed to the compiler.

62. What is the function of pre-processor?

Pre-processor expands Macro expansion and File inclusion.

63. What is pre processor directive?

# is called pre processor directive. Its job is to expand macros

and files (headers)

64. What is a macro?

Macro is a named constant. It is defined using #define

Ex. # define A 5
Where ever A is found in the program 5 is substituted there
We can have macro with arguments
Ex. #define AREA(x) (3.14 * x * x)
Macro call leads to substitution

65. What is the difference between “goto.c” and

<goto.c>?

#include "goto.c" This command would look for the file goto.c in the
current directory as well as the specified list of
directories as mentioned in the include search path
that might have been set up.

#include <goto.c> This command would look for the file goto.c in the
specified list of directories only.

66. What is a search path?

They include search path is nothing but a list of directories

that would be searched for the file being included. Different C
compilers let you set the search path in different manners. If
you are using Turbo C/C++ compiler then the search path can
be set up by selecting ‘Directories’ from the ‘Options’ menu.
On doing this a dialog box appears. In this dialog box against
‘Include Directories’ we can specify the search path.

67. Is there any provision in c language to start

execution from other than main ()?

Yes we can. By using #pragma directive we can do it

Ex.
Page2

Void fun1 ( );
Void fun2 ( );
#pragma startup fun1
#pragma exit fun2
main ( )
{
printf (“\nInside maim”);
}
void fun1 ( )
{
printf (“\nInside fun1”);
}
void fun2 ( )
{
printf (“\nInside fun2”);
}

Output :
Inside fun1
Inside main
Inside fun2

ARRAYS
68. What is the need for going an array?

If there are situations in which we would want to store more

than one value at a time in a single variable.

Ex. For example, suppose we wish to arrange the percentage

marks obtained by 100 students in ascending order. In such a
case we have two options to store these marks in memory:
1. Construct 100 variables to store percentage marks obtained
by 100 different students, i.e. each variable containing
one student’s marks.
2. Construct one variable (called array or subscripted variable)
capable of storing or holding all the hundred values.
Obviously, the second alternative is better. A simple reason
for this is, it would be much easier to
handle one variable than handling 100 different variables.

69. What is an array?

An array is a collection of similar elements. The first element

in the array is numbered 0, so the last element is 1 less than
the size of the array. An array is also known as a subscripted
variable. Before using an array its type and dimension must
be declared.

70. Is there any boundary check available for arrays in

c?

No, there is no boundary checking for arrays in c.

Page2
71. Discuss the call by value and call by reference with
arrays.

In the call by value we pass values of array elements to the

function, whereas in the call by reference we pass addresses
of array elements to the function.

72. How a pointer is associated to an array?

Ex. Int a [10];

Int *p;
p=a;
p [1] is same as a [1]
Here in the above snippet p is pointer and it is pointing to an
array called a; we can access the whole array with the help of
the pointer

73. How do we pass an entire array to a function?

Just passing the address of the zeroth element of the array to

a function is as good as passing the entire array to the
function. It is also necessary to pass the total number of
elements in the array

74. What is a two dimensional array?

The two-dimensional array is also called a matrix.

Ex. Int a [4] [5];
It is two dimensional arrays of 4 rows and 5 columns
Indirectly two dimensional arrays is nothing but
collection of 1D arrays

75. What is an array of pointers?

Since a pointer variable always contains an address, an array

of pointers would be nothing but a collection of addresses. The
addresses present in the array of pointers can be addresses of
isolated variables or addresses of array elements or any other
addresses. All rules that apply to an ordinary array apply to
the array of pointers as well.

76. What is a 3D array?

A three-dimensional array can be thought of as an array of

arrays of arrays. The outer array has three elements.

77. What are the things that can be done on pointers?

Addition of two pointers, Multiplication of a pointer with a

constant and Division of a pointer with a constant.

78. Different sorting techniques in C.

Page2
Bubble sort, selection sort, insertion sort, quick sort, merge
sort and heap sort.

STRING FUCTIONS
79. What is a string?

A string constant is a one-dimensional array of characters

terminated by a null (‘\0’). For example,
char name [ ] = {‘H’, 'A', 'E', 'S', 'L', 'E', 'R', '\0’} ;
or
char name [] =”UGY” /* \0 is appended by c*/
The terminating null (‘\0’) is important, because it is the only
way the functions that work with a string can know where the
string ends.

80. What is the format specifier used to print strings

on to the screen?

The %s used in printf ( ) is a format specification for printing

out a string. The same specification can be used to receive a
string from the keyboard.

81. What are the different pre defined string functions

available in C?

Function Use
strlen Finds length of a string
strlwr Converts a string to lowercase
strupr Converts a string to uppercase
strcat Appends one string at the end of another
strncat Appends first n characters of a string at the end of
another
strcpy Copies a string into another
strncpy Copies first n characters of one string into another
strcmp Compares two strings
strncmp Compares first n characters of two strings
strcmpi Compares two strings without regard to case ("i"
denotes that this function ignores case)
stricmp Compares two strings without regard to case
(identical to strcmpi)
strnicmp Compares first n characters of two strings without
regard to case
strdup Duplicates a string
strchr Finds first occurrence of a given character in a string
strrchr Finds last occurrence of a given character in a string
strstr Finds first occurrence of a given string in another
string
strset Sets all characters of string to a given character
strnset Sets first n characters of a string to a given character
strrev Reverses string
Page2
STUCTURES
82. Why do we use structure?

A structure contains a number of data types grouped together.

These data types may or may not be of the same type.

83. Define structure.

Structure is collection of variables of different data type name

under single entity.

84. What are the terms associated with structure?

Example 1:

Struct emp

Int empno;

Char ename [20];

Float sal;

};

This is called structure definition. Memory is not allocated to

the members when the structure is defined.

Struct emp a; a is structure variable of tag emp;

Memory is allocated to the members when the structure is

instantiated.

In the above structure the total memory allocated to it is

2+20+4 i.e. 26

Example 2:

We can instantiate a structure at the time of definition it self

Struct emp {

Int empno;

Char ename [20];

Float sal;

} a, b, c;
Page2

a, b, c are structure variables

Example 3:

See these examples to have a better idea about declarations

struct book
{
char name;
float price;
int pages;
};
struct book b1, b2, b3;
Is same as...

struct book
{
char name;
float price;
int pages;
} b1, b2, b3;
Or even...

struct {
char name;
float price;
int pages;
} b1, b2, b3;

85. Why are the structures defined globally?

Usually structure type declaration appears at the top of the

source code file, before any variables or functions are defined.
In very large programs they are usually put in a separate
header file, and the file is included (using the pre-processor
directive #include) in whichever program we want to use this
structure type.

86. How do we access structure members?

Let us take the structure

struct book {
char name [20];
float price;
int pages;
} b1, b2, b3;

B1 is the name of the structure

We use dot operator to access structure members
Ex. B1.name=”yugander”;

Syntax is
Structure name. field name;
Page2

87. What is an array of structure?

struct book {
char name [20];
float price;
int pages;
} b [100];
B is array of structures where each element is nothing it is
structure.
Some times like this a lot of variables (b1 to b100 for storing
data about hundred books) needed to be handled. Therefore
he allowed us to create an array of structures; an array of
similar data types which themselves are a collection of
dissimilar data types.

88. Can we assign value of structure to other

structure?

Yes we can assign for example a, b are two structures we can

do a=b provided both structures belong to the same tag

89. Can we have structure within a structure?

We can use structure within a structure. But inner structure

definition must be written in above outer structure.

90. If a structure is associate with a pointer, how do we

operate members?

By using -> operator we have to operate member fields of

structure.

91. Can you send a structure to a function using call by

value and call by address?

We can send a structure to a function by both the

mechanisms.

92. What is a self referential structure?

If structure has one of its members type as its own type then
it is called self referential structure.

INPUT/OUTPUT FUNCTION:
93. What are the different I/O functions available?

There are numerous library functions available for I/O. These

can be classified into three broad categories:

Console I/O - Functions to receive input from keyboard and

functions write output to VDU.
Page2
 File I/O - Functions to perform I/O operations on floppy
functions disk or hard disk.

94. What is console?

The screen and keyboard together are called a console.

95. How does sprint() work?

The sprintf( ) function works similar to the printf( ) function

except for one small difference. Instead of sending the output
to the screen as printf( ) does, this function writes the output
to an array of characters.

96. How does a sscanf() work?

It allows us to read characters from a string and to convert

and store them in C variables according to specified formats.
The sscanf( ) function comes in handy for in-memory
conversion of characters to values. You may find it convenient
to read in strings from a file and then extract values from a
string by using sscanf( ). The usage of sscanf( ) is same as
scanf( ), except that the first argument is the string from
which reading is to take place.

97. What is the difference between getch() and

getche()?

These functions return the character that has been most

recently typed. The ‘e’ in getche( ) function means it echoes
(displays) the character that you typed to the screen. As
against this getch( ) just returns the character that you typed
without echoing it on the screen.

98. What is the difference between getchar() and

fgetchar()?

getchar( ) works similarly and echo’s the character that you

typed on the screen, but unfortunately requires Enter key to
be typed following the character that you typed. The
difference between getchar( ) and fgetchar( ) is that the
former is a macro whereas the latter is a function. Here is a
sample program that illustrates the use of these functions.

99. What is union?

A "union declaration" specifies a set of variable values and,

optionally, a tag naming the union. The variable values are
called "members" of the union and can have different types.
Unions are similar to "variant records" in other languages.

A variable with union type stores one of the values defined by

Page2

that type. The same rules govern structure and union

declarations. Unions can also have bit fields.
Members of unions cannot have an incomplete type, type
void, or function type. Therefore members cannot be an
instance of the union but can be pointers to the union type
being declared.

A union type declaration is a template only. Memory is not

reserved until the variable is declared.

If a union of two types is declared and one value is stored, but

the union is accessed with the other type, the results are
unreliable. For example, a union of float and int is declared. A
float value is stored, but the program later accesses the value
as an int. In such a situation, the value would depend on the
internal storage of float values. The integer value would not
be reliable.

100. What are the similarities between union and

structure?

Structures and unions share the following characteristics:

• Their members can be objects of any type, including

other structures and unions or arrays. A member can
also consist of a bit field.
• The only operators valid for use with entire structures
and unions are the simple assignment (=) and sizeof
operators. In particular, structures and unions cannot
appear as operands of the equality ( == ), inequality (!
=), or cast operators. The two structures or unions in
the assignment must have the same members and
member types.
• A structure or a union can be passed by value to
functions and returned by value by functions. The
argument must have the same type as the function
parameter. A structure or union is passed by value just
like a scalar variable; that is, the entire structure or
union is copied into the corresponding parameter.

101. What is the difference between structure and a

union?

The union is a structure. The main difference between

structure and union is, the size of the union is equal to the size
of the largest member of the union where as size of the
structure is the sum of the size of all members of the
structure. And one more thing is that, at a time we can use
one member of the union.

FILES
Page2

102. How do you open a file?

Before we can read (or write) information from (to) a file on a
disk we must open the file. To open the file we have called the
function fopen( ).

103. How do you read file content?

To read the file’s contents from memory there exists a

function called fgetc( ).

ch = fgetc ( fp ) ;
fgetc( ) reads the character from the current pointer position,
advances the pointer position so that it now points to the next
character, and returns the character that is read, which we
collected in the variable ch.

104. What does a fputc() do?

The fputc( ) function is similar to the putch( ) function, in the

sense that both output characters. However, putch( ) function
always writes to the VDU, whereas, fputc( ) writes to the file.

105. What are the different file opening modes?

Read(r), write(w), append(a) modes

And r+, w+, a+ we can do read, write, append with these

three.

106. How do you close a file?

By using fclose() we can close a opened file.

107. What is binary file?

A binary file is merely a collection of bytes. This collection

might be a compiled version of a C program (say PR1.EXE), or
music data stored in a wave file or a picture stored in a
graphic file. A very easy way to find out whether a file is a text
file or a binary file is to open that file in Turbo C/C++. If on
opening the file you can make out what is displayed then it is
a text file, otherwise it is a binary file.

108. Why do use fprintf()?

The only function that is available for storing numbers in a

disk file is the fprintf( ) function.

Text and characters are stored one character per byte, as we

would expect. Numbers are stored as strings of characters.

109. Why do we go for a binary file?

Page2
If large amount of numerical data is to be stored in a disk file,
using text mode may turn out to be inefficient. The solution is
to open the file in binary mode and use those functions (fread(
) and fwrite( ) which are discussed later) which store the
numbers in binary format. It means each number would
occupy same number of bytes on disk as it occupies in
memory.

110. Why fread and fwrite are more important?

Any database management application in C must make use of

fread( ) and fwrite( ) functions, since they store numbers more
efficiently, and make writing/reading of structures quite easy.
Note that even if the number of elements belonging to the
structure increases, the format of fread( ) and fwrite( )
remains same.

111. Explain rewind(),ftell(),fseek().

The rewind( ) function places the pointer to the beginning of

the file, irrespective of where it is present right now.
The fseek( ) function lets us move the pointer from one record
to another.

fseek ( fp, -recsize, SEEK_CUR ) ;

If we wish to know where the pointer is positioned right now,

we can use the function ftell( ). It returns this position as a
long int which is an offset from the beginning of the file. The
value returned by ftell( ) can be used in subsequent calls to
fseek( )

112. What are command line parameters?

The arguments that we pass on to main( ) at the command

prompt are called command line arguments. The function
main( ) can have two arguments, traditionally named as argc
and argv. Out of these, argv is an array of pointers to strings
and argc is an int whose value is equal to the number of
strings to which argv points. When the program is executed,
the strings on the command line are passed to main.

113. What are the bitwise operators?

Operator Meaning
~ One’s complement
>> Right shift
<< Left shift
& Bitwise AND
Page2

| Bitwise OR
^ Bitwise XOR(Exclusive
 OR)

114. What are enumerators?

An enumeration consists of a set of named integer constants.

An enumeration type declaration gives the name of the
(optional) enumeration tag and defines the set of named
integer identifiers (called the "enumeration set," "enumerator
constants," "enumerators," or "members"). A variable with
enumeration type stores one of the values of the enumeration
set defined by that type.

Variables of enum type can be used in indexing expressions

and as operands of all arithmetic and relational operators.
Enumerations provide an alternative to the #define
preprocessor directive with the advantages that the values
can be generated for you and obey normal scoping rules.

In ANSI C, the expressions that define the value of an

enumerator constant always have int type; thus, the storage
associated with an enumeration variable is the storage
required for a single int value. An enumeration constant or a
value of enumerated type can be used anywhere the C
language permits an integer expression.

Example:

enum DAY /* Defines an enumeration type */

{
saturday, /* Names day and declares a */
sunday = 0, /* variable named workday with */
monday, /* that type */
tuesday,
wednesday, /* wednesday is associated with 3 */
thursday,
friday
} workday;
The value 0 is associated with saturday by default. The
identifier sunday is explicitly set to 0. The remaining
identifiers are given the values 1 through 5 by default.

DYNAMIC MEMORY ALLOCATION

115. What is dynamic storage allocation?

A storage allocation technique in which the storage assigned to a

computer program varies during program execution, based on the
current needs of the program and of other executing programs.

116. What is Dynamic memory allocation?

Page2
The process of allocating memory at run time is known as
dynamic memory allocation.

117. What are the dynamic memory allocation

functions?

Many languages permit a programmer to specify an array size

at run time. Such languages have the ability to calculate and
assign during executions, the memory space required by the
variables in the program. But c inherently does not have this
facility but supports with memory management functions,
which can be used to allocate and free memory during the
program execution. The following functions are used in c for
purpose of memory management.

Function Task
Malloc Allocates memory requests size of bytes and returns a
pointer to the Ist byte of allocated space
Calloc Allocates space for an array of elements initializes them to
zero and returns a pointer to the memory
Free Frees previously allocated space
Realloc Modifies the size of previously allocated
space.

118. Explain memory allocation process.

According to the conceptual view the program instructions

and global and static variable in a permanent storage area
and local area variables are stored in stacks. The memory
space that is located between these two regions in available
for dynamic allocation during the execution of the program.
The free memory region is called the heap. The size of heap
keeps changing when program is executed due to creation
and death of variables that are local for functions and blocks.
Therefore it is possible to encounter memory overflow during
dynamic allocation process. In such situations, the memory
allocation functions mentioned above will return a null pointer.

119. How to allocate a block of memory?

A block of memory may be allocated using the function

malloc. The malloc function reserves a block of memory of
specified size and returns a pointer of type void. This means
that we can assign it to any type of pointer. It takes the
following form:

ptr=(cast-type*)malloc(byte-size);

ptr is a pointer of type cast-type the malloc returns a pointer

(of cast type) to an area of memory with size byte-size.
Page2

Example: x=(int*)malloc(100*sizeof(int));
120. How to allocate multiple blocks of memory?

Calloc is another memory allocation function that is normally

used to request multiple blocks of storage each of the same
size and then sets all bytes to zero. The general form of calloc
is:

ptr=(cast-type*) calloc(n,elem-size);

The above statement allocates contiguous space for n blocks

each size of elements size bytes. All bytes are initialized to
zero and a pointer to the first byte of the allocated region is
returned. If there is not enough space a null pointer is
returned.

121. How to release the used space?

Compile time storage of a variable is allocated and released

by the system in accordance with its storage class. With the
dynamic runtime allocation, it is our responsibility to release
the space when it is not required. The release of storage
space becomes important when the storage is limited. When
we no longer need the data we stored in a block of memory
and we do not intend to use that block for storing any other
information, we may release that block of memory for future
use, using the free function.

free(ptr);

ptr is a pointer that has been created by using malloc or

calloc.

122. How to alter the size of allocated memory?

The memory allocated by using calloc or malloc might be

insufficient or excess sometimes in both the situations we can
change the memory size already allocated with the help of the
function realloc. This process is called reallocation of memory.
The general statement of reallocation of memory is :

ptr=realloc(ptr,newsize);

This function allocates new memory space of size newsize to

the pointer variable ptr ans returns a pointer to the first byte
of the memory block. The allocated new block may be or may
not be at the same region.

SORTING TECHNIQUES:
123. What is sorting algorithm?
Page2
A sorting algorithm is an algorithm that puts elements of a list
in a certain order.

124. Name different types of sorting algorithms.

In this table, n is the number of records to be sorted. The

columns "Average" and "Worst" give the time complexity in
each case, under the assumption that the length of each key
is constant, and that therefore all comparisons, swaps, and
other needed operations can proceed in constant time.
"Memory" denotes the amount of auxiliary storage needed
beyond that used by the list itself, under the same
assumption. These are all comparison sorts.

Name Average Worst Memory

Bubble sort O(n2) O(n2) O(1)
Selection sort O(n2) O(n2) O(1)
Inserting sort O(n2) O(n2) O(1)
Merge sort O(n logn) O(n logn) O(n)
Quick sort O(n logn) O(n2), O(log n)
Heap sort O(n logn) O(n logn) O(1)

125. Explain Bubble sort.

Bubble sort is a straightforward and simplistic method of

sorting data that is used in computer science education. The
algorithm starts at the beginning of the data set. It compares
the first two elements, and if the first is greater than the
second, it swaps them. It continues doing this for each pair of
adjacent elements to the end of the data set. It then starts
again with the first two elements, repeating until no swaps
have occurred on the last pass. While simple, this algorithm is
highly inefficient and is rarely used except in education. A
slightly better variant, cocktail sort, works by inverting the
ordering criteria and the pass direction on alternating passes.
Its average case and worst case are both O(n²).

Step-by-step example:

Let us take the array of numbers "5 1 4 2 8", and sort the
array from lowest number to greatest number using
bubble sort algorithm. In each step, elements written in
bold are being compared.

First Pass:
( 5 1 4 2 8 ) ( 1 5 4 2 8 ) Here, algorithm compares the
first two elements, and swaps them.
(15428) (14528)
(14528) (14258)
( 1 4 2 5 8 ) ( 1 4 2 5 8 ) Now, since these elements
Page2

are already in order, algorithm does not swap them.

Second Pass:
(14258) (14258)
(14258) (12458)
(12458) (12458)
(12458) (12458)
Now, the array is already sorted, but our algorithm does
not know if it is completed. Algorithm needs one whole
pass without any swap to know it is sorted.
Third Pass:
(12458) (12458)
(12458) (12458)
(12458) (12458)
(12458) (12458)
Finally, the array is sorted, and the algorithm can
terminate.

Algorithm for bubble sort:

procedure bubbleSort( A : list of sortable items ) defined as:

for each i in 1 to length(A) do:
for each j in length(A) downto i + 1 do:
if A[ j -1 ] > A[ j ] then
swap( A[ j - 1], A[ j ] )
end if
end for
end for
end procedure

126. Explain Selection sort.

Selection sort is a simple sorting algorithm that improves on

the performance of bubble sort. It works by first finding the
smallest element using a linear scan and swapping it into the
first position in the list, then finding the second smallest
element by scanning the remaining elements, and so on.
Selection sort is unique compared to almost any other
algorithm in that its running time is not affected by the prior
ordering of the list: it performs the same number of operations
because of its simple structure. Selection sort requires (n - 1)
swaps and hence Θ(n) memory writes. However, Selection sort
requires (n - 1) + (n - 2) + ... + 2 + 1 = n(n - 1) / 2 = Θ(n2)
comparisons. Thus it can be very attractive if writes are the
most expensive operation, but otherwise selection sort will
usually be outperformed by insertion sort or the more
complicated algorithms.

Here is an example of this sort algorithm sorting five

elements:

64 25 12 22 11
Page2

11 25 12 22 64
11 12 25 22 64
11 12 22 25 64

Pseudo code for selection sort:

for i ← 0 to n-2 do
min ← i
for j ← (i + 1) to n-1 do
if A[j] < A[min]
min ← j
swap A[i] and A[min]

127. Explain Insertion sort.

Insertion sort is a simple sorting algorithm that is relatively

efficient for small lists and mostly-sorted lists, and often is
used as part of more sophisticated algorithms. It works by
taking elements from the list one by one and inserting them in
their correct position into a new sorted list. In arrays, the new
list and the remaining elements can share the array's space,
but insertion is expensive, requiring shifting all following
elements over by one. The insertion sort works just like its
name suggests - it inserts each item into its proper place in
the final list. The simplest implementation of this requires two
list structures - the source list and the list into which sorted
items are inserted. To save memory, most implementations
use an in-place sort that works by moving the current item
past the already sorted items and repeatedly swapping it with
the preceding item until it is in place. Shell sort is a variant of
insertion sort that is more efficient for larger lists. This method
is much more efficient than the bubble sort, though it has
more constraints.

Pseudo code of insertion sort:

insertionSort(array A)
for i = 1 to length[A]-1 do
begin
value = A[i]
j = i-1
while j >= 0 and A[j] > value do
begin
A[j + 1] = A[j]
j = j-1
end
A[j+1] = value
end

128. Explain Merge sort.

Merge sort takes advantage of the ease of merging already

sorted lists into a new sorted list. It starts by comparing every
Page2

two elements (i.e., 1 with 2, then 3 with 4...) and swapping

them if the first should come after the second. It then merges
each of the resulting lists of two into lists of four, then merges
those lists of four, and so on; until at last two lists are merged
into the final sorted list. Of the algorithms described here, this
is the first that scales well to very large lists, because its
worst-case running time is O(n log n).

Example:

Pseudo code for merge sort:

function mergesort(m)
var list left, right, result
if length(m) ≤ 1
return m

var middle = length(m) / 2

for each x in m up to middle
add x to left
for each x in m after middle
add x to right
left = mergesort(left)
right = mergesort(right)
result = merge(left, right)
return result

129. Explain Heap sort.

Heap sort is a much more efficient version of selection

sort. It also works by determining the largest (or
smallest) element of the list, placing that at the end (or
beginning) of the list, then continuing with the rest of the
list, but accomplishes this task efficiently by using a data
structure called a heap, a special type of binary tree.
Page2

Once the data list has been made into a heap, the root
node is guaranteed to be the largest element. When it is
removed and placed at the end of the list, the heap is
rearranged so the largest element remaining moves to
the root. Using the heap, finding the next largest
element takes O(log n) time, instead of O(n) for a linear
scan as in simple selection sort. This allows Heap sort to
run in O(n log n) time.

130. Explain Quick sort.

Quick sort is a divide and conquer algorithm which relies

on a partition operation: to partition an array, we choose
an element, called a pivot, move all smaller elements
before the pivot, and move all greater elements after it.
This can be done efficiently in linear time and in-place.
We then recursively sort the lesser and greater sub lists.
Efficient implementations of quick sort (with in-place
partitioning) are typically unstable sorts and somewhat
complex, but are among the fastest sorting algorithms in
practice. Together with its modest O(log n) space usage,
this makes quick sort one of the most popular sorting
algorithms, available in many standard libraries. The
most complex issue in quick sort is choosing a good pivot
element; consistently poor choices of pivots can result in
drastically slower (O(n²)) performance, but if at each step
we choose the median as the pivot then it works in
O(n log n).

Pseudo code for quick sort:

function partition(array, left, right, pivotIndex)

pivotValue := array[pivotIndex]
swap array[pivotIndex] and array[right] // Move pivot to
end
storeIndex := left
for i from left to right − 1
if array[i] ≤ pivotValue
swap array[i] and array[storeIndex]
storeIndex := storeIndex + 1
swap array[storeIndex] and array[right] // Move pivot to its
final place
return storeIndex

SAMPLE PROGRAMS:
1. Factorial using recursive function.

#include<stdio.h>
Page2

#include<conio.h>
long double facto(int n)

if(n>0)

return(n*facto(n-1));

else

return(1);

void main()

int n;

clrscr();

printf("enter number\n");

scanf("%d",&n);

if(n==0||n==1)

printf("%d!=%d",n,1);

else

printf("%d!=%Lf",n,facto(n));

getch();

2. Reverse of a number.

#include<stdio.h>

#include<conio.h>

void main()

int sum=0,x,n;

clrscr();

printf("enter a value of n: ");

Page2

scanf("%d",&n);
 while(n>0)

x=n%10;

sum=sum*10 + x;

n=n/10;

printf("%d",sum);

getch();

3. Armstrong number

#include<stdio.h>

#include<conio.h>

void main()

int s,sum=0,n,a;

clrscr();

printf("\nEnter the no.");

scanf("%d",&n);

a=n;

while(n!=0)

s=n%10;

sum=sum+s*s*s;

n=n/10;

if(sum==a)
Page2

printf("\nThe no.is an armstrong no.",a);

 else

printf("\nNot an armstrong no");

getch();

4. Reverse of a string.

#include<stdio.h>

#include<conio.h>

void main()

char a[10];

int i,j,count=0;

clrscr();

printf("Enter the first string:");

gets(a);//scanf("%s",&a);

for(i=0;a[i]!=0;i++)

count++;

for(j=count;j>=0;j--)

printf("%c",a[j]);

getch();

5. Logic for the multiplication of the 2D matrix

mat3[i][j]=mat3[i][j]+(mat1[i][k]*mat2[k][j]);

6. Fibonacci series

#include<stdio.h>

#include<conio.h>
Page2

void main()
{

int f1=0,f2=1,f3,n,i=3;

clrscr();

printf("Enter the number greater than 2: ");

scanf("%d",&n);

printf("%d\t%d",f1,f2);

while(i<=n)

f3=f1+f2;

printf("\t%d",f3);

f1=f2;

f2=f3;

i++;

getch();

7. Whether the given number is a prime or not.

#include<stdio.h>

#include<conio.h>

void main()

int n,i=1,count=0;

clrscr();

printf("enter a number greater than two");

scanf("%d",&n);
Page2

while(n<=1)
 {

printf("\nre-enter a value i.e greater than 1\n");

scanf("%d",&n);

for(i=1;i<=n;i++)

if(n%i==0)

c=c+1;

if(c==2)

printf("the number is a prime number");

else

printf("the number is not a prime number");

getch();

8. Printing prime number up to n.

#include<stdio.h>

#include<conio.h>

void main()

int n,i=1,c=0,x,count=0;

clrscr();

printf("enter any number");

scanf("%d",&x);
Page2

for(n=1;n<=x;n++)
 {

for(i=1;i<=n;i++)

if(n%i==0)

c=c+1;

if(c==2)

count=count+1;

printf("\t%d",n);

c=0;

printf("\n Number of prime numbers is %d", count);

getch();

9. How to read and print a 3x3 matrix.

#include<stdio.h>

#include<conio.h>

void main()

int i,j,a[3][3];

clrscr();

printf("Enter the values in the matrix:\n");

for(i=0;i<=2;i++)
Page2

{
 for(j=0;j<=2;j++)

scanf("%d",&a[i][j]);

printf("\nThe following is the values entered in the

matrix:\n");

for(i=0;i<=2;i++)

for(j=0;j<=2;j++)

printf("\t%d",a[i][j]);

printf("\n");

getch();

10. Check whether the word or a number is a

palindrome or not.

#include<stdio.h>

#include<conio.h>

void pal(int i, int j,char s[])

if (s[i]==s[j])

if(i>=j)
Page2

printf("\n Palindrome");
 else

pal(i+1,j-1,s);

else

printf("\n not a palindrome");

return;

void main()

char a[20];

int i,l=0;

clrscr();

printf("enter string");

scanf("%s",a);

for(i=0;a[i]!=0;i++)

l++;

pal(0,l-1,a);

getch();

11. Swap two numbers without using the third variable.

#include<stdio.h>

#include<conio.h>

void main()
Page2

{
 int a,b;

clrscr();

printf(“\n Enter the two numbers a and b:”);

scanf(“%d%d”, &a, &b);

a=a+b;

b=a-b;

a=a-b;

printf(“\n The swapped numbers are a=%d and b=

%d”,a,b);

getch();

Page2