Next-Level C Programming (with Advanced C Topics)

Course Objectives

This ‘skills-centric’ course is about 50% hands-on lab and 50% lecture designed to train attendees in core C development skills, coupling the most current, effective techniques with the soundest coding practices. Students will explore a series of progressively advanced topics, where each topic consists of lecture, group discussion, practical hands-on lab exercises, and lab review. Working in a hands-on learning environment led by our expert practitioner, students will explore:

• Expression, Objects, and LValues
• Data Types, Constants, and Variables
• Scope and Storage Class
• Operators and Operands
• Arrays and Pointers
• Structures and Pointers
• Functions and Pointers
• Dynamic memory allocation and Linked Lists

Need different skills or topics?  If your team requires different topics or tools, additional skills or custom approach, this course may be further adjusted to accommodate.  We offer additional C, COBOL, structured programming, mainframe and other related courses which may be blended with this course for a track that best suits your development objectives. Our team will collaborate with you to understand your needs and will target the course to focus on your specific learning objectives and goals.

Course Prerequisites

This course is geared for experienced C Language Applications Programmers, and Systems Programmers. Attendees should have at least three (3) months of C Language Programming experience.

Course Agenda

Expression, Objects, and LValues

• Evaluating Expressions
• Expression Side Effects
• Objects and Data Types
• Lvalues and Constants

Data Types, Constants, and Variables

• Basic Data Types
• Constant Data Types
• Variable Data Types
• Derived Data Types
• Data Type Renaming – typedef

Scope and Storage Class

• Internal Scope
• External Scope
• Extending Scope
• Storage Class
• Automatic
• External
• Static
• Register

Operators and Operands

• Operator Attributes
• Operator Action
• Number of Operands
• Precedence Level
• Associativity Direction
• Operand Attributes
• Data Type Restrictions
• Lvalue Requirements
• Expression Evaluation Result
• Data Type
• Value
• Lvalue
• Side Effects

Arrays and Pointers

• Multi Dimensional Arrays
• Pointer - Array Relationship
• Pointer Arithmetic
• Valid Pointer Operations
• Multiple Pointers to an Array
• Array Subscripting vs. Pointers
• Arrays of Pointers
• Multiple Levels of Indirection

Structures and Pointers

• Structure Review
• Structure Definition
• Structure Declaration
• Structure Holes
• Nested Structures
• Arrays of Structures
• Pointers to Structures
• Structures Containing Pointers
• Structure Variations
• Unions
• Bit Fields
• Enumerations

Functions and Pointers

• Function Declaration
• Old Style
• Function Prototypes (ANSI)
• Function Arguments and Parameters
• Basic Data Types
• Pointers to Basic Data Types
• Single and Multi-Dimensional Arrays
• Structures and Pointers to Structures
• Function Return Types
• void Data Type Functions
• Basic Data Type Functions
• Pointer to Data Type Functions
• Structure Data Type Functions
• Pointers to Functions
• Declaring Pointers to Functions
• Pointers to Functions as Formal Parameter
• Arrays of Pointers to Functions
• Functions Returning Pointers to Functions

Dynamic memory allocation and Linked Lists

• Dynamic Memory Allocation
• Dynamic Memory Allocation Concepts
• Library Function: malloc
• Library Function: free
• Linked Lists
• Linked List Concepts
• Linear Linked List
• Bi-directional Linked List
• Linked List Conclusions

Course Materials

Student Materials: Each student will receive a Student Guide with course notes, code samples, software tutorials, diagrams and related reference materials and links (as applicable). Our courses also include step by step hands-on lab instructions and and solutions, clearly illustrated for users to complete hands-on work in class, and to revisit to review or refresh skills at any time. Students will also receive the project files (or code, if applicable) and solutions required for the hands-on work.

Classroom Setup Made Simple:  Our dedicated tech team will work with you to ensure your classroom and lab environment is setup, tested and ready to go well in advance of the course delivery date, ensuring a smooth start to class and seamless hands-on experience for your students. We offer several flexible student machine setup options including guided manual set up for simple installation directly on student machines, or cloud based / remote hosted lab solutions where students can log in to a complete separate lab environment minus any installations, or we can supply complete turn-key, pre-loaded equipment to bring ready-to-go student machines to your facility.  Please inquire for details, options and pricing.