C Programming: The Essentials for Engineers and Scientists

This is an introductory book on computer programming for scientists and engineers based on the C language. It is a learn-by-doing book teaching the reader to write small stand-alone programs in C to solve typical scientific / engineering problems. As such it differs markedly from a C book for CS majors. It has many examples and exercises and is for computer literate but non-programming undergraduates.

1 Programming Preliminaries.- 1.1 A Five-Step Problem-Solving Process.- 1.1.1 Step 1: Define the Problem.- 1.1.2 Step 2: Outline a Solution.- 1.1.3 Step 3: Design an Algorithm.- 1.1.4 Step 4: Convert the Algorithm Into a Program.- 1.1.5 Step 5: Verify the Operation of the Program.- 1.2 Defining a Pseudocode Language for Algorithm Development.- 1.3 Organizing Pseudocode Into a Program.- 1.4 Examples.- 1.5 What Is the Point of Programming?.- 1.6 Your First C Program.- 2 The Basics of C Programming.- 2.1 C Program Layout.- 2.2 Basic Input and Output.- 2.2.1 Keyboard Input and Monitor Output.- Reading and Displaying Numbers.- Reading and Displaying Characters and Strings of Characters.- Reading Values With Leading Zeros and Nonblank Separators.- 2.2.2 File I/O.- 2.2.3 I/O Redirection.- 2.3 Reading External Text Files of Unknown Length.- 2.4 Reading a File One Character at a Time.- 2.5 Applications.- 2.5.1 Maximum Deflection of a Beam Under Load.- 2.5.2 Relativistic Mass and Speed of an Electron.- 2.6 Debugging Your Programs.- 2.6.1 Compile-Time Errors.- 2.6.2 Run-Time Errors.- 2.7 Exercises.- 3 Data Types, Operators, and Functions.- 3.1 Specifying and Using Data Types.- 3.2 Operators.- 3.3 Type Casting.- 3.4 Intrinsic Functions.- 3.5 Simple User-Defined Functions.- 3.6 Applications.- 3.6.1 Refraction of Light.- 3.6.2 Inverse Hyperbolic Functions.- 3.7 Debugging Your Programs.- 3.7.1 Problems With Data Types and Casting.- 3.7.2 Problems With Intrinsic Functions.- 3.7.3 Problems With User-Defined Functions.- 3.8 Exercises.- 4 Selection and Repetition Constructs.- 4.1 Relational and Logical Operators.- 4.2 Selection (IF…THEN…ELSE…) Constructs.- 4.3 Choosing Alternatives From a List of Possibilities.- 4.4 Repetition (LOOP…) Constructs.- 4.4.1 Count-Controlled Loops.- 4.4.2 Conditional Loops.- Pre-Test Loops.- Post-Test Loops.- Loops for Input Validation.- 4.5 Applications.- 4.5.1 Solving the Quadratic Equation.- 4.5.2 Maximum Deflection of a Beam With Various Support/Loading Systems.- 4.5.3 Refraction of Light.- 4.5.4 Oscillating Frequency of an LC Circuit.- 4.5.5 Calculating Radiation Exposures for a Materials Testing Experiment.- 4.6 Debugging Your Programs.- 4.7 Exercises.- 5 More About Modular Programming.- 5.1 Defining Information Interfaces in C.- 5.2 Menu-Driven Programs.- 5.3 More About Function Interfaces.- 5.4 Recursive Functions.- 5.5 Using Prewritten Code Modules.- 5.6 Using Functions as Arguments and Parameters.- 5.7 Passing Arguments to the main Function.- 5.8 Applications.- 5.8.1 The Quadratic Equation Revisited.- 5.8.2 Finding Prime Numbers.- 5.8.3 The Towers of Hanoi.- 5.8.4 Trapezoidal Rule Integration.- 5.9 Debugging Your Programs.- 5.9.1 Passing Multiple Outputs Through Parameter Lists.- 5.9.2 Recursive Functions.- 5.9.3 Reusable Code.- 5.10 Exercises.- 6 Arrays.- 6.1 Arrays in Structured Programming.- 6.2 One-Dimensional Array Implementation in C.- 6.3 Using Arrays in Function Calls.- 6.4 Multidimensional Arrays.- 6.5 Accessing Arrays With Pointers.- 6.6 More About Strings.- 6.6.1 Strings as Arrays.- 6.6.2 String Functions.- 6.7 Applications.- 6.7.1 Cellular Automata and Sierpinski Triangles.- 6.7.2 Probability Analysis for Quality Control of Manufacturing Processes.- 6.7.3 Parsing a String Containing an Unknown Number of Numerical Values.- 6.8 Debugging Your Programs.- 6.9 Exercises.- 7 User-Defined Data Objects.- 7.1 Creating User-Defined Data Objects.- 7.2 Arrays of Structures.- 7.3 Functions With Structures as Parameters and Data Types.- 7.4 Applications.- 7.4.1 Finding the Perimeter and Area of a Plot of Land.- 7.4.2 A Set of Functions to Perform Operations on Complex Numbers.- 7.4.3 Analyzing Data From a Datalogger.- 7.5 Debugging Your Programs.- 7.6 Exercises.- 8 Searching and Sorting Algorithms.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Searching Algorithms.- 8.2.1 Linear Searches.- 8.2.2 Binary Search.- 8.2.3 Choosing a Searching Algorithm.- 8.3 Sorting Algorithms.- 8.3.1 Selection Sort.- 8.3.2 Insertion Sort.- 8.3.3 The Recursive Quicksort Algorithm.- 8.3.4 Efficiency of Sorting Algorithms.- 8.5 Application: Merging Sorted Lists.- 8.6 Debugging Your Programs.- 8.7 Exercises.- 9 Basic Statistics and Numerical Analysis.- 9.1 Introduction.- 9.2 Basic Descriptive Statistics.- 9.2.1 The Sample Mean and Standard Deviation.- 9.2.2 Linear Regression and the Linear Correlation Coefficient.- 9.2.3 Application: Analyzing Wind Speed Data.- 9.3 Numerical Differentiation.- 9.3.1 Newton’s and Stirling’s Formulas.- 9.3.2 Application: Estimating the Speed of a Falling Object.- 9.4 Numerical Integration.- 9.4.1 Polynomial Approximation Methods.- 9.4.2 Application: Evaluating the Gamma Function.- 9.5 Solving Systems of Linear Equations.- 9.5.1 Linear Equations and Gaussian Elimination.- 9.5.2 Application: Current Flow in a DC Circuit With Multiple Resistive Branches.- 9.6 Finding the Roots of Equations.- 9.7 Numerical Solutions to Differential Equations.- 9.7.1 Motion of a Damped Mass and Spring.- 9.7.2 Application: Current Flow in a Series LRC Circuit.- 9.8 Exercises.- 10 Binary Files, Random Access, and Dynamic Allocation.- 10.1 Binary and Random Access Files.- 10.1.1 Random Access File Concepts.- 10.1.2 Implementing Binary Files.- File Access Modes.- I/O for Binary Files.- Random Access to Binary Files.- 10.2 Dynamic Allocation and Linked Lists.- 10.2.1 The Concept of Dynamic Allocation.- 10.2.2 Dynamically Allocated Arrays.- 10.2.3 Dynamically Allocated Linked Lists.- Data Declarations.- Function Prototypes.- Function main.- Creating the List.- Accessing Nodes in the List.- Adding and Deleting Nodes.- 10.3 Queues and Stacks.- 10.3.1 Implementing Queues.- 10.3.2 Implementing Stacks.- 10.4 Application: Managing Data From Remote Instruments.- 10.5 Exercises.- Appendices.- Appendix 1: Table of ASCII Characters for Windows/DOS-Based PCs.- Appendix 2: Program Listings by Chapter.- Appendix 3: Glossary.