How to Write a Basic Program in C: A Step-by-Step Guide

Rumman Ansari   Software Engineer   2024-07-04 04:54:45   19082  Share
Subject Syllabus DetailsSubject Details 12 Questions 12 Program
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Programming in C language is very simple and it is easy to learn here I will show you how to write your first program. For writing C program you need C programming Editor or any IDE like codeblock, c-free, turbo c editor.

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Write Program in any IDE

Program


#include<stdio.h>  
void main()
{
 printf("Hello World"); 
}
Write First Program in C

Save C program

Save any C program using .c Extension with file name. For example your program name is helloworld, then it save with helloworld.c

save First Program in C

Always remember to save any c program we need to add .c extension.

Save First Program in C

Compile and Run C Program

Now compile the program

Compile First Program in C

Now run the program

Output

 Hello World
Run First Program in C

Explanation:

Let us take a look at the various parts of the above program:

  • The first line of the program #include  is a preprocessor command, which tells a C compiler to include stdio.h file before going to actual compilation.

  • The next line int main() is the main function where the program execution begins.

  • The next line printf(...) is another function available in C which causes the message "Hello, World!" to be displayed on the screen.

  • The next line return 0; terminates the main() function and returns the value 0.

Compile and Execute C Program

Let us see how to save the source code in a file, and how to compile and run it. Following are the simple steps ?

  • Open a text editor and add the above-mentioned code.

  • Save the file as hello.c

  • Open a command prompt and go to the directory where you have saved the file.

  • Type gcc hello.cand press enter to compile your code.

  • If there are no errors in your code, the command prompt will take you to the next line and would generate a.out executable file.

  • Now, type a.out to execute your program.

  • You will see the output "Hello World" printed on the screen.

$ gcc hello.c
$ ./a.out
Hello, World!

Make sure the gcc compiler is in your path and that you are running it in the directory containing the source file hello.c