CHARACTERISTICS OF C LANGUAGE
CHARACTERISTICS OF C LANGUAGE
C is a powerful and flexible general purpose language that has won widespread acceptance over the years. Several features make C a very attractive and popular programming language for coding solutions. The following are the characteristics of C:
1. Simplicity : C has the richest collection of in-built functions, keywords and data types. It also resembles general English language. Moreover, it follows a structured approach so it is easy to learn.
2. Clarity: The keywords and library functions available in C resembles common English words thus it helps to improve the clarity of the program.
3. Portability: C is highly portable language. By the term 'portable, we mean computer independent. The programs written on one computer can run on another computer having different operating system with little or no modification.
4. Case Sensitive: C is a case sensitive language. The identifiers written in uppercase letters are different from identifiers written in lowercase letters. So variable names num, Num and NUM are different.
In addition, C allows users to create user-defined data types which can be used later in the program.
6. Quicker Compilation: The C compiler is very quick i.e. the computations can be done much
faster than other languages like BASIC. In C, we can display the number 1 to 15000 in one second but it would take more than 50 seconds in BASIC language.
7. Easily Available: The C compilers are easily available and they require very less disk space for their storage. It is very easy to load different types of C compliers in your computer.
8. Errors are easily detected: The syntax errors can easily be detected by the C compiler. When the programs, after typing in the editor, are compiled by compiler, then errors (if any) are immediately displayed on the screen pointing to the lines where they occur. Thus they can be easily removed.
9. Modularity: The programs made in C can be easily divided into small modules with the use of the functions which can be reused in other programs. Modularity allows C to be ideal for large projects involving several programmers.
10. Versatile: C is a very versatile language as it can solve problems in almost every application area.
11. Memory Management: The various memory management functions available in C help to save the memory and thus improve the efficiency of the program. These functions help to reduce the amount of space required by the program. It also saves memory when programs (specially in case of multiple file programs) are executed. Some common memory management functions available in C are calloc(), malloc(), realloc().
12. Support for recursive function calls: C support recursive functio calls. It thus helps to reduce the number of lines of code as user need not write the function definition again and again. This features makes the code easier to remember. Recursive function are used when functions can be represented in terms of previous values. We shall discuss this in detail in chapter of functions.
13. Compact code: Use of operators like ++,, + ==, /=, in C helps to make compact code. These features are not available in BASIC and Cobol. Also feature of recursive functions helps. reduce the lines of code.
14. Used for System Programming: C allows access to many of the features associated with the operating system during run time (particularly Unix).
15. Lesser number of keywords: C language contains only 32 keywords, so learning only these 32 keywords without need of remembering any other word makes it easy to write programs. All other words except keywords can be used as a variable name. Thus, restriction for a variable name is reduced.
16. Flexibility: C can be used for a wide variety of applications ranging from embedded systems to commercial data processing techniques. Also, C imposes very few restrictions on the use of its features. This feature makes the programming easier.
17. Large set of standard in-built functions: C consists of a large number of in-built functions for input/output, string handling, graphical designing and for many other useful functions can be used with ease within a program and make possible to write any complex program.
18. Integration with UNIX: C can also run on UNIX operating systems and most of features remain the same while running on UNIX or on any other operating system.
19. Documentation : C language allows user to add comments in the programs. These comments i improve the readability of the program. A well commented program is often easier to understand for the people who did not write the program. Comments are written in general English and are written using / and */.
20. C can be easily embedded in other languages such as Prolog.
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