Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

Description

A detailed introduction to the C programming language for experienced programmers. The world runs on code written in the C programming language, yet most schools begin the curriculum with Python or Java. Effective C bridges this gap and brings C into the modern era--covering the modern C17 Standard as well as potential C2x features. With the aid of this instant classic, you'll soon be writing professional, portable, and secure C programs to power robust systems and solve real-world problems. Robert C. Seacord introduces C and the C Standard Library while addressing best practices, common errors, and open debates in the C community. Developed together with other C Standards committee experts, Effective C will teach you how to debug, test, and analyze C programs. You'll benefit from Seacord's concise explanations of C language constructs and behaviors, and from his 40 years of coding experience. You'll learn: • How to identify and handle undefined behavior in a C program • The range and representations of integers and floating-point values • How dynamic memory allocation works and how to use nonstandard functions • How to use character encodings and types • How to perform I/O with terminals and filesystems using C Standard streams and POSIX file descriptors • How to understand the C compiler's translation phases and the role of the preprocessor • How to test, debug, and analyze C programs Effective C will teach you how to write professional, secure, and portable C code that will stand the test of time and help strengthen the foundation of the computing world. Brief Contents Contents in Detail Foreword by Pascal Cuoq Foreword by Ollie Whitehouse Acknowledgments Introduction A Brief History of C The C Standard The CERT C Coding Standard Who This Book Is For What’s in This Book Chapter 1: Getting Started with C Developing Your First C Program Compiling and Running Your Program Preprocessor Directives The main Function Checking Function Return Values Formatted Output Editors and Integrated Development Environments Compilers GNU Compiler Collection Clang Microsoft Visual Studio Portability Implementation-Defined Behavior Unspecified Behavior Undefined Behavior Locale-Specific Behavior and Common Extensions Summary Chapter 2: Objects, Functions, and Types Objects, Functions, Types, and Pointers Declaring Variables Swapping Values (First Attempt) Swapping Values (Second Attempt) Scope Storage Duration Alignment Object Types Boolean Types Character Types Numerical Types void Types Function Types Derived Types Pointer Types Arrays Structures Unions Tags Type Qualifiers const volatile restrict Exercises Summary Chapter 3: Arithmetic Types Integers Padding and Precision The Header File Declaring Integers Unsigned Integers Signed Integers Integer Constants Floating-Point Floating-Point Types Floating-Point Arithmetic Floating-Point Values Floating-Point Constants Arithmetic Conversion Integer Conversion Rank Integer Promotions Usual Arithmetic Conversions An Example of Implicit Conversion Safe Conversions Summary Chapter 4: Expressions and Operators Simple Assignment Evaluations Function Invocation Increment and Decrement Operators Operator Precedence and Associativity Order of Evaluation Unsequenced and Indeterminately Sequenced Evaluations Sequence Points sizeof Operator Arithmetic Operators Unary + and – Operators Logical Negation Operator Multiplicative Operators Additive Operators Bitwise Operators Complement Operator Shift Operators Bitwise AND Operator Bitwise Exclusive OR Operator Bitwise Inclusive OR Operator Logical Operators Cast Operators Conditional Operator _Alignof Operator Relational Operators Compound Assignment Operators Comma Operator Pointer Arithmetic Summary Chapter 5: Control Flow Expression Statements Compound Statements Selection Statements The if Statement The switch Statement Iteration Statements The while Statement The do...while Statement The for Statement Jump Statements The goto Statement The continue Statement The break Statement The return Statement Exercises Summary Chapter 6: Dynamically Allocated Memory Storage Duration The Heap and Memory Managers When to Use Dynamically Allocated Memory Memory Management Functions The malloc Function The aligned_alloc Function The calloc Function The realloc Function The reallocarray Function The free Function Memory States Flexible Array Members Other Dynamically Allocated Storage The alloca Function Variable-Length Arrays Debugging Allocated Storage Problems Dmalloc Safety-Critical Systems Exercises Summary Chapter 7: Characters and Strings Characters ASCII Unicode Source and Execution Character Sets Data Types Character Constants Escape Sequences Linux Windows Character Conversion Strings String Literals String-Handling Functions and Annex K Bounds-Checking Interfaces POSIX Microsoft Summary Chapter 8: Input/Output Standard I/O Streams Stream Buffering Predefined Streams Stream Orientation Text and Binary Streams Opening and Creating Files The fopen Function The POSIX open Function Closing Files The fclose Function The POSIX close Function Reading and Writing Characters and Lines Stream Flushing Setting the Position in a File Removing and Renaming Files Using Temporary Files Reading Formatted Text Streams Reading to and Writing from Binary Streams Summary Chapter 9: Preprocessor The Compilation Process File Inclusion Quoted and Angle Bracket Include Strings Conditional Inclusion Generating Errors Using Header Guards Macro Definitions Macro Replacement Type-Generic Macros Predefined Macros Summary Chapter 10: Program Structure Principles of Componentization Coupling and Cohesion Code Reuse Data Abstractions Opaque Types Executables Linkage Structuring a Simple Program Building the Code Summary Chapter 11: Debugging, Testing, and Analysis Assertions Static Assertions Runtime Assertions Compiler Settings and Flags GCC and Clang Visual C++ Debugging Unit Testing Static Analysis Dynamic Analysis AddressSanitizer Exercises Summary References Index