C Programming Language

What Does C Programming Language Mean?

C is a high-level and general-purpose programming language that is ideal for developing firmware or portable applications. Originally intended for writing system software, C was developed at Bell Labs by Dennis Ritchie for the Unix Operating System in the early 1970s.

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Ranked among the most widely used languages, C has a compiler for most computer systems and has influenced many popular languages – notably C++.

Techopedia Explains C Programming Language

C belongs to the structured, procedural paradigms of languages. It is proven, flexible and powerful and may be used for a variety of different applications. Although high level, C and assembly language share many of the same attributes.

Some of C's most important features include:

  • Fixed number of keywords, including a set of control primitives, such as if, for, while, switch and do while
  • Multiple logical and mathematical operators, including bit manipulators
  • Multiple assignments may be applied in a single statement.
  • Function return values are not always required and may be ignored if unneeded.
  • Typing is static. All data has type but may be implicitly converted.
  • Basic form of modularity, as files may be separately compiled and linked
  • Control of function and object visibility to other files via extern and static attributes
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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…