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C Programming Tutorial - Start Here

From David Bolton,
Your Guide to C / C++ / C#.
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Learn C Programming

Welcome to About.com's free tutorials on C programming. This tutorial features a series of lessons designed to teach you the basics of C programming.

If you are completely new to programming read these articles to give you an idea what is involved.

There is a fair amount of material to learn in C but take it one step at a time and you'll get there. Plus you can ask on the forums or email me if you get stuck. Don't feel overwhelmed.

If you haven't done so, please check out the requirements before you start this tutorial. You will need a C compiler and we recommend the Open Watcom compiler. Instructions for obtaining that and installing it are here.

If you are unfamiliar with compilers read about compilers and interpreters.

C Tutorial

First Encounters. These cover compiling your first program and getting familiar with manipulating numbers and getting into the nitty gritty of arrays and chars, expressions, control statements and functions.

Basic Lessons

Lesson One. Compile your first C Program.
Lesson Two. Handling Numbers.
Lesson Three. Chars and Arrays.
Lesson Four. Expressions.
Lesson Five. Control Statements
Lesson Six. Functions.
Lesson Seven. Introduction to Pointers Lesson. All About String and Text Handling.

Advanced Lessons These cover the more advanced aspects of programming in C. Make sure you are comfortable with the basic lessons before attempting these.

Lesson Eight. Advanced Pointers - Linked Lists and Function Pointers.

Lesson Nine. Low Level Operations. Use of binary and, or and xor and unions.
Lesson Ten. Advanced Structures.
Lesson Eleven. Architecture of Applications.
Lesson Twelve. Odds and Ends.

You could also take a look at the Projects area where there is a game I've written in C ( a conversion from a basic game). Alternatively, there are plenty of examples of open source free software in the C Code library.

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