Variables and data types

Lesson objectives

• By the end of this lesson, you will be expected to:

• Identify various characters used in C program
• Declare and use variables appropriately
• Describe various basic data types in C
• Describe various qualifiers used to modify data types
• Define and use a constants in a program
• Describe types of statements and expressions in C
 Character set

• This consists of a set of alphabets, letters, white spaces and

some special characters that are valid in C language.
1. Alphabets
– Uppercase: A B C…………………… XYZ
– Lowercase: a b c……………. xyz
2. Digits 012345689
3. Special Characters:
 Character set

4. White space Characters:

– White space refers to spaces and blank lines in your source
code.
 Keywords:
• These are the reserved words used in programming.
Each keyword has fixed meaning that cannot be
changed by user.
• C programming is case sensitive and all keywords must
be written in lowercase.
Keywords:
 Variables

• A variable is a named memory location in computer

memory used to store data.
• Each variable should be given a unique name called
identifier. Variable names are symbolic representation
of a memory location.
– Examples of valid variables names: pay, age, gender.
 Rules for writing a variable name in c

• A variable can be composed of letters, digits and

underscore '_'
• The first character of variable should be a letter.
• Variable names must be meaningful, easy to remember
and work with.
• The variable names should not match a reserved
keyword.
 Variable declarations

• Variable declaration is a statement that tells the

compiler the variables name, and what data type it is.
• The variables must be declared before they are used.
 Variable declarations

• The data type must be a valid C data type including

char, int, float, double, or any user defined data type
etc.
• The variable_list may consist of one or more identifier
names separated by commas. Examples:
int a,b; char e;
 Initialization of variables
• Variables can be initialized (assigned an initial value) in
their declaration. The initializer consists of an equal
sign followed by a constant expression as follows:

variable name= value;

Variables can be initialized in two ways:

1. Declare and initialize the variable(s).

int x=8; char d=’A’;
2. Declare and initialize in the variables in separate
statements:
Int x;
x=8;
char d;
d=’A’;
 Variable scope

• A scope is a region of the program.

• There are three places where variables can be
declared:
1. Inside a function or a block e.g. local variables,
2. In the definition of function parameters e.g. formal parameters.
3. Outside of all functions e.g. global variables.
 Data Types
• Data types are the keywords, which are used for assigning a type to a
variable. The type of a variable determines how much space it occupies in
storage and how the bit pattern stored is interpreted.
• A variable has four characteristics.

int x=8
 Classification of Data Types
1. Basic Data Types
• Integer types
• Floating Type
• Char type
2. Derived Data Types
• Arrays
• Pointers
• Structures
• Enumeration
 Integer Types

• An integer is a whole number that can be positive,

negative, or zero.
– Example int x=7;
 Floating-Point Types

• A float-point is used to represent real numbers. That is

numbers that can consist of the integer part and
decimal part.
• Example
– float x, y; //Declaration of float type
– y=3.45; //Initialization of float variable
 Char data type

• Used to represent data of character type. The keyword

char is used to declare character type variables.
– char a,b,d;
– a=’A’;
 Using printf( ) to output values
• The main output code used with printf() and the
format they represent are listed below.
Code Format
%c Character
%d or %i Integer
%f Floating point numbers (float, double)
%s String of characters
Inputting values from the keyboard using scanf( )

• To use scanf( ) to read an integer value from the

keyboard, use the general form:
scanf(“%d”, &int_var-name);

• The fragment below, for example, reads an integer entered

from the keyboard.
int num;
scanf(“%d”, &num);
Inputting values from the keyboard using scanf( )

• The table below codes and formats used with scanf()

for basic types.
Code Format
%c Read a single character
%d or %i Read an integer
%lf Read a double
%s Read a string
 Activity

1. Write a C program that prompts the user to enter two

values. The program should calculate the sum of the
values entered.
2. Write a C program that prompts the user to enter two
values. The program should calculate the difference
of the values entered.
 Activity

• Write a C program that calculates the area of a

rectangle. Given:
Area=length * width
 Assignment One (5 Marks)

• Write a C program that prompts the user to enter the

radius of a circle and then calculates the area of a
circle. Given that:

Area=(pi*r2)
 Qualifiers

• This is a keyword used to alter the meaning of base

data types to yield a new data type.
• Types of Qualifiers include:
1. Size qualifiers
2. Sign qualifiers
3. Constant qualifiers
4. Volatile qualifiers
 Size qualifiers
• Size qualifiers alter the size of basic data type. The
keywords long and short. long int i;
• The size of int is either 2 bytes or 4 bytes but, when
long keyword is used, that variable will be either 4
bytes of 8 bytes.
 Sign qualifiers
• Determine whether a variable can hold positive value,
negative value or both values. Keywords signed and
unsigned are used for sign qualifiers.
unsigned int a;
• Unsigned variable can hold zero and positive values only.
• It is not necessary to define variable using keyword
signed because; a variable is signed by default. Sign
qualifiers can be applied to only int and char data types.
 Constant qualifiers

• Constant qualifiers can be declared with keyword

const.
• An object declared by const cannot be modified.
const int p=20;
• The value of p cannot be changed in the program.
 Volatile qualifiers

• A variable should be declared volatile whenever its

value can be changed by some external sources
outside program. Keyword volatile is used to indicate
volatile variable.
 Constants
• A constant is a data storage location used by a program. Unlike a
variable, the value stored in a constant can’t be changed during
program execution. The constants refer to fixed values that the
program may not alter during its execution.
• C has two types of constants, each with its own specific uses:
a) Literal Constants
b) Symbolic Constants
 Literal Constants
• A literal constant is a value that is typed directly into the source
code wherever it is needed.
• Literal constants can be of any of the basic data types like:
1. integer constant
2. a floating constant
3. a character constant
4. a string literal
5. enumeration constants
 integer constant
• An integer literal can be a decimal (base10), octal (base 8), or
hexadecimal(base 16) constant.
1. Decimal digits: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
2. Octal digits: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
3. Hexadecimal digits: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F.
• Examples:
a) Decimal constants: 0, -4, 12 etc
b) Octal constants: 021, 077, 033 etc
c) Hexadecimal constants: 0x7f, 0x2a, 0x521 etc