C (/siː/, as in the letter c) is a general-purpose, imperative computer programming language, supporting structured programming, lexical variable scope and recursion, while a static type system prevents many unintended operations. By design, C provides constructs that map efficiently to typical machine instructions, and therefore it has found lasting use in applications that had formerly been coded in assembly language, including operating systems, as well as various application software for computers ranging from supercomputers to embedded systems.
C was originally developed by Dennis Ritchie between 1972 and 1973 at Bell Labs. It was created to make utilities running on Unix. Later, it is applied to re-implementing the kernel of the Unix operating system[6]. Through 1980s, C gradually gained popularity. Nowadays, it is one of the most widely used programming languages[7][8] with C compilers from various vendors available for the majority of existing computer architectures and operating systems. C has been standardized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) since 1989 (see ANSI C) and subsequently by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
C is an imperative procedural language. It was designed to be compiled using a relatively straightforward compiler, to provide low-level access to memory, to provide language constructs that map efficiently to machine instructions, and to require minimal run-time support. Despite its low-level capabilities, the language was designed to encourage cross-platform programming. A standards-compliant C program that is written with portability in mind can be compiled for a very wide variety of computer platforms and operating systems with few changes to its source code. The language has become available on a very wide range of platforms, from embedded microcontrollers to supercomputers.
Overview
Like most imperative languages in the ALGOL tradition, C has facilities for structured programming and allows lexical variable scope and recursion, while a static type system prevents many unintended operations. In C, all executable code is contained within subroutines, which are called "functions" (although not in the strict sense of functional programming). Function parameters are always passed by value. Pass-by-reference is simulated in C by explicitly passing pointer values. C program source text is free-format, using the semicolon as a statement terminator and curly braces for grouping blocks of statements.
The C language also exhibits the following characteristics:
There is a small, fixed number of keywords, including a full set of control flow primitives: for, if/else, while, switch, and do/while. User-defined names are not distinguished from keywords by any kind of sigil.
There are a large number of arithmetical and logical operators, such as +, +=, ++, &, ~, etc.
More than one assignment may be performed in a single statement.
Function return values can be ignored when not needed.
Typing is static, but weakly enforced: all data has a type, but implicit conversions may be performed.
Declaration syntax mimics usage context. C has no "define" keyword; instead, a statement beginning with the name of a type is taken as a declaration. There is no "function" keyword; instead, a function is indicated by the parentheses of an argument list.
User-defined (typedef) and compound types are possible.