C Programming

This course aims to provide a practical introduction to the C programming language.

Course content and assessment

The course is fully assessed through homeworks.

Assignments

  1. Assignment 0 (not for assessment)
  2. Assignment 1 (DL for submission 18.10)
  3. Assignment 2 (modified text, DL for submission 25.10)
  4. Assignment 3 (DL for submission 01.11)
  5. Assignment 4 (DL for submission 15.11)
  6. Assignment 5 (DL for submission 22.11)
  7. Assignment 6 (modified text, DL for submission 30.11)
  8. Assignment 7 (DL for submission 16.12,Example input file points.dat)
  9. Assignment 8 (DL for submission 18.01.2017)

Lecture Notes

  1. Lecture 1 (variables, types, functions)
  2. Lecture 2 (arrays, strings and typedef)
  3. Lecture 3 (control statements: branching, provisional assignment schedule)
  4. Lecture 4 (control statements: loops)
  5. Lecture 5 (recursion vs. loop and more control statements)
  6. Lecture 6 (sorting the array)
  7. Lecture 7 (timing and data I/O)
  8. Lecture 8 (addresses and pointers)
  9. Lecture 9 (multidimensional arrays - applications)
  10. Lecture 10 (multidimensional arrays - some more applications)
  11. Lecture 11 (dynamical memory allocation revisited)
  12. Lecture 12 (linked lists)
  13. Lecture 13 (binary trees and backtracking)
  14. Lecture 14 (divide and conquer, knapsack: backtracking and pruning)
  15. Lecture 15 (knapsack: dynamic programming)

Code Examples (taken from Mike Peardon)

Conditionals

  1. Example of an "if" statement
  2. Example of a "while" loop
  3. Example of a "switch" statement (and a "for" loop)
  4. The "?" syntax

Arrays

  1. Simple 1d fixed-size array example
  2. An array as a function argument - is "call by value" broken?

Pointers

  1. Find the memory address of a variable
  2. Increment an integer using a pointer
  3. Traverse an array using pointer arithmetic

Dynamical memory allocation

  1. Make an offset-one array with malloc
  2. Make a two-index object to store binomial coefficients with malloc (version 1)
  3. Make a two-index object to store binomial coefficients with malloc (version 2)

Function pointers

  1. Polymorphism in C (?!)

Example - finding the convex hull of a set of points

  1. Some code in a tar-ball

References and books

  1. "Practical C Programming, 3rd Edition" by Steve Oualline (O'Reilly).