Topics

Tool	Use	Explanation	C Examples
Program Basics	start programming	minimum syntax to create a program (or get points in this class)	header comments preprocessor directives main function return statement
Variable	save stuff	store values that change (either during the program or between program runs)	declaration statements assignment statements initialization statements
Expression	do stuff	bit of code which results in or evaluates to another value	arithmetic: + - * / % relational: == < <= > >= logical: && || function calls
Formatted IO	interact with user	gets values from the keyboard or displays text to the screen	printf function scanf function
Selection	make decisions	allows program to "decide" which code blocks to execute	if blocks else blocks switch statements
Iteration	repetition	allows program to continue executing certain blocks of code until a condition is met	for loops while loops do while loops
Arrays	saving a group of stuff	store a collection of same-type values that change	declaration (with size) access a single element through the index access all elements with a for loop controlled by the index
C-Style Strings	saving words	store a collection of chars that combine to form language	declared as a 1D array of chars access a single element through the index access all elements with a for loop controlled by the null character \0
Functions	modularize code	organize program into chunks of code specific enough to accomplish a single task, but generalizable enough to do it under different circumstances	prototypes, definitions, calls returned type/value, name, parameters/arguments
Pass by Address	"return" multiple values	since C can only return 1 value from a function, passing the address of a variable allows it to be modified within the function	pointer parameters address of operator & dereference operator *
File IO	connect to a stream and interact with a file	read values from or save values to a file on the hard drive	FILE* data type fopen and fclose functions fprintf and fscanf functions
2D Arrays	saving a group of stuff with multiple dimensions	store a collection of same-type values that change, in rows and columns	declaration (with row and column sizes) access a single element through the row and column indexes access all elements with an outer for loop controlled by the row index and an inner for loop controlled by the column index
Arrays of Strings	saving a group of words	store a collection of C-style strings	declared as a 2D array of chars access a single element through the row and column indexes access all elements with an outer for loop controlled by the row index and an inner for loop controlled by the null character \0