Features and Characteristics of C Programming Language

 

C is a structured programming language developed in 1973 by computer programmer Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Laboratories. It is one of the oldest programming languages in the world and used even today in colleges and universities around the world to introduce students to computer programming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

C is considered to be one of the most powerful programming languages because of its structure, high-level abstraction and the fact that it is machine-independent. C was first developed with the UNIX operating system and shares much in common with UNIX, which still remains a widely used operating system, and forms the core of the internet data superhighway.

Let’s have a quick look at the features and characteristics of C programming language…

Features of C Programming Language:

• C is one of the most popular languages used today and features in operating systems and embedded systems.
• C is a robust programming with an impressive set of built-in functions and a variety of operators which you can use to write any complex program.
• C programs are fast and efficient. This is because C uses a powerful set of data types and operators.
• C combines the power and capability of assembly language with the user friendly features of a high-level language.
• C is the most widely used older programming language. It continues to go strong while older programming languages such as BASIC and COBOL have been virtually forgotten.
• C is very much portable, which means programs written on a machine using C can be used on other machines as well without any modification.
• A C program consists of a number of functions that are supported by C library. In fact, you can create your own function, which can then be added to the C library.

Characteristics of C Programming Language

1) C is a General Purpose Programming Language This means C can be used to write a variety of applications. It is often referred to as a “system programming language.”

2) C is a middle level language, which means it combines the features of high level language with the functionality of an assembly language.

3) C is a structured programming language, which means as a programmer, you are required to divide a problem into a several different modules or functions.

4) C is renowned for its simplicity and is easy to use because of its structured approach. It has a vast collection of keywords, operators, built-in functions and data types which make it efficient and powerful.

5) C is portable, which means a C program runs in different environments. C compilers are available for all operating systems and hardware platforms. Additionally, you can easily write code on one system and port it to another.

6) C is popular not just because it can be used as a standalone programming language, but also as it can be used as an interface to other more visual languages.

7) C is a very flexible language; it is convenient and portable, like a high level language and flexible like a low level language. It can be interfaced with other programming languages.

8) C is super fast. The compilation and execution of programs is much faster on C than with most other languages.

9) C is modular, which means C programs can be divided into small modules, which are much easier to understand.

10) C is easily available. The C software is easy to access and can be easily installed on your computer. The installation of C hardly takes a few minutes.

11) C is easy to debug. The C compiler detects syntax errors quickly and easily and displays the errors along with the line numbers of the code and the error message.

12) C makes available a number of in-built memory management functions that save memory and improve the efficiency of the program such as malloc(), calloc() and alloc().

13) Recursion is one of the common techniques used in C, where in a function calls itself again and again.

14) Finally,  C has a rich set of library functions and supports graphic programming too.