C Tutorials
- What is C?
- History Of C?
- Feature of C?
- How to Install C?
- How to write c program?
- First c program
- Flow of C program
- printf() and scanf() in C
- C Program Structure
- Variables in C
- Data Types in C
- Keywords in C
- C Operators
- Comments in C
- Escape Sequence in C
- Escape Sequence in C
- Constants in C
- C - Storage Classes
- C - Decision Making
- Switch statement in C
- C Loops
- Loop Control Statements
- Type Casting in C
- functions in C
- call by value Or call by reference
- Recursion in C
- Storage Classes in C
- Array
- String
- Pointer
- Pointer And Array
- Pointer with function
- Structure
- Union
- File Handling
- Preprocessor Directives
Important Links
identifiers :-
#defince n 10; here n is the identifier.
Variables in C
A variable is a user defined name of memory location. It is used to store data. Its value can be changed and it can be reused many times. It is a way to represent memory location through symbol so that it can be easily identified.
Each variable in C has a specific type, which determines the size and layout of the variable's memory.
The name of a variable can be composed of letters, digits, and the underscore character. It must begin with either a letter or an underscore. Upper and lowercase letters are distinct because C is case-sensitive.
A variable tells the compiler where and how much storage to create for the variable. A variable definition specifies a data type.
datatype variable_list;
int i, j, k;
char c, ch;
float f, salary;
double d;
The line int i, j, k; declares and defines the variables i, j, and k; which instruct the compiler to create variables named i, j and k of type int.
#include<stdio.h>
int main () {
/* variable definition: */
int a, b;
int c;
float f;
/* actual initialization */
a = 10;
b = 20;
c = a + b;
printf("value of c : %d \n", c);
f = 70.0/3.0;
printf("value of f : %f \n", f);
return 0;
}
Rules for defining variables :-
- A variable can have alphabets, digits and underscore.
- A variable name can start with alphabet and underscore only. It can't start with digit.
- No white space is allowed within variable name.
- A variable name must not be any reserved word or keyword e.g. int, float etc.
Types of Variables in C :-
-
There are many types of variables in c:
- local variable
- global variable
- static variable
- automatic variable
- external variable
Local Variable
A variable that is declared inside the function or block is called local variable.
It must be declared at the start of the block.
void function1()
{
int x=10;//local variable
}
You must have to initialize the local variable before it is used.
Global Variable
A variable that is declared outside the function or block is called global variable. Any function can change the value of the global variable. It is available to all the functions.
It must be declared at the start of the block.
int value=20;//global variable
void function1(){
int x=10;//local variable
}
Static Variable :-
A variable that is declared with static keyword is called static variable. It retains its value between multiple function calls.
void function1(){
int x=10;//local variable
static int y=10;//static variable
x=x+1;
y=y+1;
printf("%d,%d",x,y);
}
If you call this function many times, local variable will print the same value for each function call e.g, 11,11,11 and so on. But static variable will print the incremented value in each function call e.g. 11, 12, 13 and so on.
Automatic Variable :-
All variables in C that is declared inside the block, are automatic variables by default. By we can explicitly declare automatic variable using auto keyword.
int x=10;//local variable (also automatic)
auto int y=20;//automatic variable
}
External Variable :-
We can share a variable in multiple C source files by using external variable. To declare a external variable, you need to use extern keyword.
myfile.h
extern int x=10;//external variable (also global)
program1.c
#include "myfile.h"
#include <stdio.h>
void printValue(){
printf("Global variable: %d", global_variable);
}