Practical C Programming

A comprehensive guide with practical instructions for learning data structures, low-level programming, high-performance computing, networking and IoT to help you understand the latest standards in C programming such as C11 and C18

Key Features

• Tackle various challenges in C programming by making the most of its latest features
• Understand the workings of arrays, strings, functions, pointers, advanced data structures, and algorithms
• Become well-versed with process synchronization during multitasking and server-client process communication

Book Description

Used in everything from microcontrollers to operating systems, C is a popular programming language among developers because of its flexibility and versatility. This book helps you get hands-on with various tasks, covering the fundamental as well as complex C programming concepts that are essential for making real-life applications.

You'll start with recipes for arrays, strings, user-defined functions, and pre-processing directives. Once you're familiar with the basic features, you'll gradually move on to learning pointers, file handling, concurrency, networking, and inter-process communication (IPC). The book then illustrates how to carry out searching and arrange data using different sorting techniques, before demonstrating the implementation of data structures such as stacks and queues. Later, you'll learn interesting programming features such as using graphics for drawing and animation, and the application of general-purpose utilities. Finally, the book will take you through advanced concepts such as low-level programming, embedded software, IoT, and security in coding, as well as techniques for improving code performance.

By the end of this book, you'll have a clear understanding of C programming, and have the skills you need to develop robust apps.

What you will learn

• Discover how to use arrays, functions, and strings to make large applications
• Perform preprocessing and conditional compilation for efficient programming
• Understand how to use pointers and memory optimally
• Use general-purpose utilities and improve code performance
• Implement multitasking using threads and process synchronization
• Use low-level programming and the inline assembly language
• Understand how to use graphics for animation
• Get to grips with applying security while developing C programs

Who this book is for

This intermediate-level book is for developers who want to become better C programmers by learning its modern features and programming practices. Familiarity with C programming is assumed to get the most out of this book.

Table of Contents

1. Working with Arrays
2. Managing Strings
3. Exploring Functions
4. Preprocessing and Compilation
5. Deep Dive into Pointers
6. File Handling
7. Implementing Concurrency
8. Networking and Inter-process communication
9. Sorting and Searching
10. Working with Graphs
11. Advanced Data Structures and Algorithms
12. Creativity with Graphics
13. Using MySQL Database
14. General-Purpose Utilities
15. Improving Performance of your Code
16. Low-Level Programming
17. Embedded Software and IoT
18. Applying Security in Coding

B. M. Harwani is the founder of Microchip Computer Education, based in Ajmer, India, which provides computer literacy in programming and web development to learners of all ages. He further helps the community by sharing the knowledge and expertise he's gained over 20 years of teaching by writing books. His recent publications include jQuery Recipes, published by Apress, Introduction to Python Programming and Developing GUI Applications with PyQT, published by Cengage Learning, The Android Tablet Developer's Cookbook, published by Addison-Wesley Professional, UNIX and Shell Programming, published by Oxford University Press, and Qt5 Python GUI Programming Cookbook, published by Packt.