- C is a small , efficient ,powerful, flexible and close to computer H/W (architecture).
- It's a systems language (which means it can be used to do low-level programming with minimal or no run-time).
- It is essentially high level assembly (it was designed to write portable OS's in).
- A lot of libraries are written in C and it's easy to find reference code, and to get support.
- it's declining as an applications language, but still holding strong as a systems language.
- C is a general-purpose programming language with features economy of expression, modern flow control and data structures, and a rich set of operators.
- C programming is structure programming language we can add no. of module (function) according to our need.
- C has which is its application in Firmware programming (hardware). C language ability it is use/work with assembly and communicates directly with controllers, processors and other devices.
- C is designed for professional users.
- C was not able to automatic checking compare other languages.
- C does not support modern concept like OOP’s and multithreading.
- There is no runtime checking.
- There is no strict type checking (for ex: we can pass an integer value for the floating data type).
- As the program extends it is very difficult to fix the bugs etc.
Keywords are the words whose meaning has already been explained to the C compiler. The keyword can't 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. The keywords are also called the Reserved Keywords. There are only 32 keywords available in C.
Some Important Keywords in C Programming Language int, char, double, float, switch, case, if, else, for, while, long, short etc.
Note: Compiler vendors provide their own keywords apart from mentioned above. These include Extended keywords like near, far, asm, etc. Such compiler specific keywords should be preceded by two underscore sign AS __far.
short, long: Used only for int (integers), to change size of the data type for save memory space. The short modifier reduces the size of the data type to half it’s regular storage capabilities.
unsigned, signed: Also used only for int. Unsigned modifies int to positive number range. Signed is the default modifier for all of the data types. unsigned restricts the data type so that it can only store positive values. By default all data types are signed. Signed means that the data type is capable of storing both positive and negative values.
long long: The size of long long modifier is at least 64 bits. Again was with both the short and long we have two types of the long long, signed and unsigned.