C programming language is a general-purpose, imperative popular computer programming language. It supports structured programming, variable scope, recursion, provide low-level access to memory etc. C become one of the most widely used programming languages of all time. C is also the most widely used programming language for writing operating systems, UNIX is the first programming language written in C.
C programming is considered as the precursor for almost all of the most popular high-level languages available today including C++, D, Go, Rust, Java etc.
Advantages of C Programming Language
- Easy to learn : C is a very easy to learn middle level language for expressing ideas in programming in a way that most people are comfortable with.
- Low-level Language Support : C language is reasonably close to assembly machine. It support features like pointers, bytes and bit level manipulation. C allows the programmer to write directly to memory. C structures, pointers and arrays are designed to structure and manipulate memory in an efficient, machine-independent fashion. It is generally used to create hardware devices, OS, drivers, kernels etc.
- Structured programming language : A structured programming language breaks and abstract a program into small logical components which are responsible for performing a specific task. C’s main structural components are functions or subroutines. It makes the program easier to understand and modify.
- Produces efficient programs : C language is a compiled programming language, which creates fast and efficient executable files. It also provides a set of library functions for common utilities. C provides a lot of inbuilt functions that makes the development fast.
- Produces portable programs : C language produces portable programs, they can be run on any compiler with little or no modifications. One of the main strengths of C is that it combines universality and portability across various computer architectures.
- Powerful programming language : C language provides a wide variety of inbuilt data types and ability to create custom data types using structs. It also provides a large set of commonly used Input/Output, Mathematical, String etc, related functions as C standard library. C has a rich set of control statements, arithmetic operators, loops etc which provides a powerful tool for programmer to implement his logic as a C program.
- Memory Management : C language provide support for dynamic memory allocation. In C, we can allocate and free the allocated memory at any time by calling library functions like malloc, calloc and free.
C Programming Language Interesting Facts
- C language was originally developed by Dennis Ritchie between 1969 and 1973 at AT&T Bell Labs.
- The UNIX Operating system was totally written in C programming language by 1973.
- C Language was originally developed for creating system applications that direct interacts to the hardware devices.
- B language is the precursor of C.
- C is considered to be the mother of all today’s modern programming languages.
C is Mid-Level Programming Language
C is often called a middle level programming language because it supports the feature of both high level and low level language. C being a mid level language doesn’t mean that, it is less powerful or harder to use than any high level language.
C language combines the best elements of high level language with the control and flexibility of low-level language(assembly language). Like assembly language, C language provide support for manipulation of bits, bytes and memory pointers at the same time it is not machine dependent like high level languages.