Write a Simple C Program to Print "Hello World!" with Fully Detailed Explanation of Each Syntax

A Simple "Hello World!" C Program:

Below C program is a very simple and basic program in the C programming language. This C program displays “Hello World!” in the output window.

All syntax and commands in C programming are case sensitive.

Each statement should be ended with semicolon (;) which is a statement terminator.

#include <stdio.h>

int main ()

{

/* Our first simple C basic program */ printf("Hello World!");

getch();

return 0;

}

Basic C Commands Explanation:

#include <stdio.h> This is a preprocessor command that includes a standard input output header file(stdio.h) from the C library before compiling a C program.
int main() This is the main function from where the execution of any C program begins.
{ This indicates the beginning of the main function.
/*_some_comments_*/ Whatever is given inside the command “/* */” in any C program, won’t be considered for compilation and execution.
printf(“Hello_World! “); printf command prints the output onto the screen.
getch(); This command waits for any character input from keyboard.
return 0; This command terminates the C program (main function) and returns 0.
} This indicates the end of the main function.

printf() and scanf()

Two commonly used functions for Input and Output tasks in C is printf() and scanf().To use these functions, we must include the stdio library in the source code. To do this just type the following code at the beginning of your program.

#include <stdio.h>

printf() is used to display your messages to the user. These messages can be used to request input from a user or to display the result.

The syntax for printing a simple message:

printf(“Text to be displayed”); Whatever we type within the double quotes will be displayed as such on the screen.

E.g.: printf(“Enter your age”);

Syntax for printing the values stored inside a variable:

printf (“format specifier”,variable1,variable 2); Matching format specifier must be specified for printing values inside a variable. (Refer the list of format specifier giver below) printf() can print any number of variables in a single statement but every variable should be separated by a comma.

E.g.: int a=10;

float b=11.5;

printf(“%d%f”, a,b);

Here the value stored inside the variables a and b will be displayed.

LIST OF FORMAT SPECIFIER:

%d Integer
%ld Long Integer
%f Float
%lf Double
%c Single character
%s String

ESCAPE SEQUENCES IN C:

An escape sequence is a series of characters that represents certain special action. It begins with a backslash character (\). The following is a list of escape sequences.

\n prints a new line
\b backs up one character
\t moves the output position to the next tab stop
\\ prints a backslash
\" prints a double quote
\' prints a single quote

scanf() is used to read the input value from the keyword.

Syntax: scanf(“format specifier”, &variable1, &variable2);

E.g.: int a; float b;

scanf(“%d %f”, &a, &b);

NOTE: C language is case sensitive. For example, printf() and scanf() are different from Printf() and Scanf(). All characters in printf() and scanf() functions must be in lower case.