C Programming for Beginners

Welcome! This repo is a hands-on path to learn C from zero to confident beginner, using short lessons and small programs you can compile and run locally.

Quick start

• Prerequisite: a C compiler (macOS has clang by default; gcc also works)
• Build all examples with make (see below)
• Prefer VS Code? Install the C/C++ extension and open this folder

How to build and run

• Build all example programs into bin/examples/:
  • make examples
• List available examples:
  • make list-examples
• Build one example:
  • make ex-hello_world
• Run one example:
  • make run-hello_world

If you don't use make:

• clang -std=c11 -Wall -Wextra -O0 -g -o bin/hello_world src/01_intro/hello_world.c

Curriculum

#	Topic	Lesson	Source
1	Introduction to Programming	docs	—
2	Introduction to C Programming	docs	src
3	C Fundamentals	docs	src
4	Operators in C	docs	src
5	Control Structures	docs	src
6	Functions	docs	src
7	Arrays	docs	src
8	Strings	docs	src
9	Pointers	docs	src
10	Structures, Unions, Enums	docs	src
11	File Handling	docs	src
12	Advanced Topics	docs	src

Learn by example

Browse 41 runnable examples with tri-lingual comments (EN/SI/TA): examples/

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Repo structure

docs/
  en/          ← lessons in English (.mdx, source of truth)
  si/          ← Sinhala translations (optional)
  ta/          ← Tamil translations (optional)
src/           ← compilable lesson source code
examples/      ← 41 standalone example programs
Makefile       ← build commands

Syllabus Outline

1. Introduction to Programming

• History of Programming (Hero of Alexandria, Jacquard Loom, Babbage, Lovelace, Turing, Ritchie)
• Compilers and Interpreters
• High-Level vs. Low-Level Languages

2. Introduction to C Programming

• Features of C
• C Standards (ANSI C, C99, C11)
• First C Program (Hello, World!)
• Compilation Process (Preprocessor, Compiler, Assembler, Linker, Loader)

3. C Fundamentals

• Variables (declaration, assignment, scope)
• Constants (#define, const)
• Data Types (char, int, float, double, void; derived and user-defined)
• Type Qualifiers (short, long, signed, unsigned)

4. Operators in C

• Arithmetic, Relational, Logical, Bitwise, Assignment, Misc (sizeof, &, *, ?:)
• Operator Precedence and Associativity

5. Control Structures

• Branching: if/else, else if, switch, ?: operator
• Looping: while, do-while, for

6. Functions

• Definition/Declaration, Parameters/Returns, Call flow, Scope rules

7. Arrays

• Declaration/Initialization, Access, Passing to functions, Multidimensional

8. Strings

• Initialization and termination (\0), I/O, Manipulation APIs, Examples

9. Pointers

• Basics, Dereference, Arithmetic, Arrays/Strings, Double pointers

10. Structures, Unions, and Enumerations

• Structures, Unions, Enums

11. File Handling in C

• Open/Read/Write/Close, Modes (r, w, a)

12. Advanced Topics

• Dynamic memory (malloc, free), Recursion, Command-line arguments