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Learn C Programming

You're reading from   Learn C Programming A beginner's guide to learning the most powerful and general-purpose programming language with ease

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Product type Paperback
Published in Aug 2022
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781801078450
Length 742 pages
Edition 2nd Edition
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Author (1):
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Jeff Szuhay Jeff Szuhay
Author Profile Icon Jeff Szuhay
Jeff Szuhay
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Toc

Table of Contents (38) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Part 1: C Fundamentals
2. Chapter 1: Running Hello, World! FREE CHAPTER 3. Chapter 2: Understanding Program Structure 4. Chapter 3: Working with Basic Data Types 5. Chapter 4: Using Variables and Assignments 6. Chapter 5: Exploring Operators and Expressions 7. Chapter 6: Exploring Conditional Program Flow 8. Chapter 7: Exploring Loops and Iterations 9. Chapter 8: Creating and Using Enumerations 10. Part 2: Complex Data Types
11. Chapter 9: Creating and Using Structures 12. Chapter 10: Creating Custom Data Types with typedef 13. Chapter 11: Working with Arrays 14. Chapter 12: Working with Multi-Dimensional Arrays 15. Chapter 13: Using Pointers 16. Chapter 14: Understanding Arrays and Pointers 17. Chapter 15: Working with Strings 18. Chapter 16: Creating and Using More Complex Structures 19. Part 3: Memory Manipulation
20. Chapter 17: Understanding Memory Allocation and Lifetime 21. Chapter 18: Using Dynamic Memory Allocation 22. Part 4: Input and Output
23. Chapter 19: Exploring Formatted Output 24. Chapter 20: Getting Input from the Command Line 25. Chapter 21: Exploring Formatted Input 26. Chapter 22: Working with Files 27. Chapter 23: Using File Input and File Output 28. Part 5: Building Blocks for Larger Programs
29. Chapter 24: Working with Multi-File Programs 30. Chapter 25: Understanding Scope 31. Chapter 26: Building Multi-File Programs with Make 32. Chapter 27: Creating Two Card Programs 33. Epilogue 34. Assessments 35. Index 36. Other Books You May Enjoy Appendix

Revisiting the main() function

The main() function is, as we have seen, the first place our program begins execution. Recall that before execution begins, various kinds of memory are allocated within our program space. Once the memory is allocated and initialized, the system calls main(), pretty much as we might call any other function. In this regard, main() is a function like any other.

The special features of main()

On the other hand, main() is not just another function in C. The main() function is a special C function with the following unique properties:

  • main() cannot be called by any other function.
  • main() is activated as the first function called when the program is invoked to begin execution.
  • When we return from the main() function, execution stops, and the program is terminated.
  • There are only two forms of the main() function prototype:
    • Has no arguments...
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