C Exercises

Introduction

As I delve into C, the lingua franca of programming, I find that the language is really helping me understand Python—and programming in general—much better. So far, I am really enjoying C!

This repository, a hobby, contains my solutions to the exercises of the classic C book "The C Programming Language, 2nd Edition", by Kernighan B.W. and Ritchie D.M. The solutions only contain code elements studied up to that point in the book. As for commented sections, I am trying to follow the NASA C style guide.

Hopefully, I will also pick up Assembly and Java one day.

How to run the code

On Terminal (UNIX), compile the desired exercise with the GNU compiler:

$ gcc -ansi <filename>.c

And execute using:

$ ./a.out

Example

To run the first exercise, open Terminal and, while in the same folder, digit (omitting the $ prompt):

$ gcc -ansi 1-01.c
$ ./a.out

The first command, gcc -ansi 1.01.c, compiles file 1-01.c according to the ANSI standard, the same used in the book. On macOS, there exists a faster version, cc -ansi 1.01.c. The command generates output a.out in the same folder. a.out is replaced every time a new program is run. To execute it, it is necessary to include ./, which locates the file is in the same folder.

The program:

#include <stdio.h>

main()    /* Print hello, world */
{
    printf("hello, world\n");
}

Prints:

hello, world

Exercises

Chapter 1

Exercise	Difficulty	Description
1-01	⭐︎	Run the "hello, world" program on your system.
1-03	⭐︎	Modify the temperature conversion program to print a heading above the table.
1-04	⭐︎	Write a program to print the corresponding Celsius to Fahrenheit table.
1-05	⭐︎	Modify the temperature conversion program to print the table in reverse order, that is, from 300 degrees to 0.
1-06	⭐︎	Verify that the expression `getchar() != EOF` is 0 or 1.
1-07	⭐︎	Write a program to print the value of EOF (end of file).
1-08	⭐︎	Write a program to count blanks, tabs, and newlines.
1-09	⭐︎⭐︎	Write a program to copy its input to its output, replacing each string of one or more blanks by a single blank.
1-10	⭐︎	Write a program to copy its input to its output, replacing each tab by `\t`, each backspace by `\b`, and each backslash by `\\`. This makes tabs and backspaces visible in an unambiguous way.