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The C language statements and expressions typically map well on to sequences of instructions for the target processor, and consequently there is a low run-time demand on system resources – it is fast to execute. With its rich set of operators, the C language can use many of the features of target CPUs.
The C programming language provides many standard library functions for file input and output.These functions make up the bulk of the C standard library header <stdio.h>. [1] The functionality descends from a "portable I/O package" written by Mike Lesk at Bell Labs in the early 1970s, [2] and officially became part of the Unix operating system in Version 7.
C functions are akin to the subroutines of Fortran or the procedures of Pascal. A definition is a special type of declaration. A variable definition sets aside storage and possibly initializes it, a function definition provides its body. An implementation of C providing all of the standard library functions is called a hosted implementation.
The C library functions, including the ISO C standard ones, are widely used by programs, and are regarded as if they were not only an implementation of something in the C language, but also de facto part of the operating system interface. Unix-like operating systems generally cannot function if the C library is erased.
The C language provides basic arithmetic types, such as integer and real number types, and syntax to build array and compound types. Headers for the C standard library , to be used via include directives , contain definitions of support types, that have additional properties, such as providing storage with an exact size, independent of the ...
The C-family programming languages share significant features of the C programming language. Many of these 70 languages were developmentally influenced by C due to its success and ubiquity. The family also includes predecessors that influenced C's design such as BCPL.
The C programming language manages memory statically, automatically, or dynamically.Static-duration variables are allocated in main memory, usually along with the executable code of the program, and persist for the lifetime of the program; automatic-duration variables are allocated on the stack and come and go as functions are called and return.
The C language is more indirectly related to ALGOL, originally through B, BCPL, and CPL, and later through ALGOL 68 (for example in case of struct and union) and also Pascal (for example in case of enumerations, const, typedef and Booleans). Some Pascal dialects also incorporated traits from C.