| Basic concepts | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Preprocessor | ||||
| Statements | ||||
| Expressions | ||||
| Initialization | ||||
| Declarations | ||||
| Functions | ||||
| Miscellaneous | ||||
| History of C | ||||
| Technical Specifications |
This section provides definitions for the specific terminology and the concepts used when describing the C programming language.
A C program is a sequence of text files (typically header and source files) that containdeclarations. They undergotranslation to become an executable program, which is executed when the OS calls itsmain function (unless it is itself the OS or anotherfreestanding program, in which case the entry point is implementation-defined).
Certain words in a C program have special meaning, they arekeywords. Others can be used asidentifiers, which may be used to identifyobjects,functions,struct,union, orenumeration tags, their members,typedef names,labels, ormacros.
Each identifier (other than macro) is only valid within a part of the program called itsscope and belongs to one of four kinds ofname spaces. Some identifiers havelinkage which makes them refer to the same entities when they appear in different scopes or translation units.
Definitions of functions include sequences ofstatements anddeclarations, some of which includeexpressions, which specify the computations to be performed by the program.
Declarations andexpressions create, destroy, access, and manipulateobjects. Eachobject,function, andexpression in C is associated with atype.
C++ documentation forBasic concepts |
