C in 21 Days: Week 2

Synopsis
C in 21 Days: Week 2 covers pointers and variable scope, concepts that are important to capitalizing on C's assets. It also covers numeric arrays, characters and strings, and structures. It introduces additional program control statements, provides detailed explanations of functions, and presents alternative functions. Sample listings, complete with sample output and an analysis of code, illustrate the topics of the day.

Audience
This course is for the beginning programmer or for the experienced programmer who wants to learn C.

Time
10 hours

Product Code: CLGC02

After completing C in 21 Days: Week 2, the user should be able to:

Use numeric and character arrays

Create and use pointers

Expand character variable types into arrays and strings

Group related variable types by using structures

Make proper use of C's variable storage classes

Apply advanced programming techniques to control program flow

Use C's predefined streams and their functions

Day 8: Numeric Arrays
Explains what an array is.  Defines single and multidimensional arrays.  Shows how to declare and initialize arrays.

Day 9: Pointers
Discusses the uses of pointers.  Demonstrates how to declare and initialize pointers.  Shows how to use pointers with simple variables and arrays.  Illustrates how to use pointers to pass arrays to functions.

Day 10: Characters and Strings
Covers how to use C's char data type to hold single characters.  Examines how to create arrays of type char to hold multiple-character strings.  Explains how to initialize characters and strings.  Describes how to use pointers with strings.  Shows how to print and input characters and strings.

Day 11: Structures
Explains what simple and complex structures are.  Shows how to define and declare structures and access data in structures.  Discusses how to create structures that contain arrays and arrays of structures.  Examines how to declare pointers in structures and pointers to structures.  Shows how to pass structures as arguments to functions.  Demonstrates how to define, declare, and use unions.  Describes how to use structures to create linked lists.

Day 12: Variable Scope
Discusses scope and why it's important.  Explains what external variables are and why programmers should usually avoid them.  Describes local variables and blocks.  Highlights the differences between static and automatic variables.  Shows how to select a storage class.

Day 13: More Program Control
Demonstrates how to use break, continue and switch statements.  Explains why programmers might use infinite loops .  Describes why the goto statement should be avoided.  Illustrates how to control program exits.  Describes how to execute functions automatically on program completion.  Explains how to execute system commands in your program.

Day 14: Working with the Screen, Printer, and Keyboard
Explains how C uses streams for input and output.  Describes various ways of accepting input from the keyboard.  Presents methods of displaying text and numeric data on the screen.  Shows how to send output to the printer.  Demonstrates how to redirect program input and output.

Week 2 in Review
Presents a program that uses the skills learned during the week.

Reference
Provides reference tables for the ASCII character chart, C reserved words, and binary and hexadecimal notation.  Lists example programs.

This course includes the following materials:

C Glossary
Files of sample program listings and answers to programming exercises