12.

010 Computational Methods of Scientific Programming Lecture 9

Todays lecture C in more detail

Summary
LAST LECTURE Basic C Syntax v. Fortran THIS LECTURE Examined C-pointers File Input/Output and the routines for formatted reads and writes Compiling C routines The C preprocessor cpp. Structures in C Memory management
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Call by reference
In call by reference, the address of a variable (called a pointer) is passed to the function. The value stored at this address can be changed but not the address itself (arguments to C functions can never be changed). Example: int mymax(*float, *float); /* Prototype. The *float is a pointer to (address of) a floating point number */ main () { float a,b; int ans; a=b=2.; ans= mymax(&a,&b); /* 1 if a > b, 2 if b > a, 0 otherwise */ /* set a and b = to max. value */ } int mymax(float *a, float *b) { if ( *a > *b ) {*b=*a;return 1;} if ( *b > *a ) {*a=*b;return 2;} return 0; }
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Addresses - *, &
C allows very explicit addressing of memory locations with the concept of pointers (points to memory location)

short a; short *ptr_to_a; a = 1; ptr_to_a = &a; Computer Memory

0x00 0xFF

0001

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&a

a (value stored at &a)

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Example of pointer use

The following code examines how pointers can be used.
main () { char c='A', *p, s[100], *strcpy(); p = &c ; printf("\n%c %c %c", *p, *p+1, *p+2); s[0] = 'A' ; s[1] = 'B'; s[2] = 'C'; s[3] = '\0'; p = s; printf("\n%s %s %c %s",s, p, *(p+1), p+1); strcpy(s,"\nshe sells seas shells by the seashore"); printf("%s",s); p += 17; for ( ; *p != '\0' ; ++p ){ if ( *p == 'e' ) *p = 'E'; if ( *p == ' ' ) *p = '\n'; } printf("%s\n",s); } 10/06/2011

Output of Program
ABC ABC ABC B BC she sells seas shells by the seashore she sells seas shElls by thE sEashorE

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File input/output
To use files in C, the stdio.h header needs to be included. This contains a structure called FILE. Code for file use contains FILE *fp, *fopen(); fp = fopen(file name,r); fp will return NULL if file could not be opened. The options for open are r read; w write; a append The file name is a variable would be declared char file_name[100]; With stdio.h included, stdin stdout and stderr are pointers to the keyboard, screen and error output (direct output to screen with little or no buffering). fclose(fp) will close the file (needed if written in one part of program and read in another). Automatically happens when program stops.
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Reading/writing files
To read files: getc(fp) : Gets next character in file fgetc(fp) : Same but function not macro getchar() : Similar but reads from stdin fgets(s,n,fp) : Gets string of n-1 characters or until a newline character is read (\n) gets(s) : Similar but reads from stdin putc(c,fp) : Outputs a character (putchar to stdout) fputs(s, fp) : null terminated string sent to file. (puts goes to stdout). fseek and other functions allow more control of moving through file.
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Reading/writing
The main reading/writing routines are: printf, fprintf, sprintf : Output formatted lines to stdout, a file pointer and string scanf, fscanf, sscanf : Input formatted lines stdin, a file pointter or a string. Format used: %nc - prints character in n-width right justified; %-nc is left justified. %n.ms - n character string into m width right justfied, %-n.ms is left justified, %s whole string to \0 %n.md int ouput (%-n.md left justified) %n.mf floating point %n.me exponential format Others include o for octal, x for hexidecimal, g for e/f combination
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Compiling and linking

Source code is created in a text editor. To compile and link: cc <options> prog.c funcs.c -llibraries -o prog Where prog.c is main program plus maybe functions funcs.c are more subroutines and functions libraries.a are indexed libraries of subroutines and functions (see ranlib) prog is name of executable program to run. <options> depend on specific machine (see man cc or cc --help) -llibraries refers to precompiled library in file liblibraries.a

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12.010 Lec 09

C preprocessor (CPP)

precompile macros and options; compiler proper does not see CPP code. Also stand alone cpp; other compilers e.g. .F files fortran (not in java!) #include - file inclusion #define - macro definition #undef - undefine macro #line - compiler messages line number (not really for general use) #if, #ifdef, #ifndef, - Conditional compilation #else, #elif, #endif __FILE__, __LINE___ (ANSI C).

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10

C preprocessor (CPP)

#include fred.h
#define PI 3.14159

#undef PI #ifdef PI printf(pi is set to %f in file %s\n,PI,__FILE__); #else printf(pi is not set. Line %d file %s\n, __LINE__,__FILE__); #endif
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- includes contents of file fred.h in program. I cpp flag sets path to search for fred.h - substitutes 3.14159 everywhere PI occurs in program source. (except in quotes). - stops substitution

11

C preprocessor (CPP)
Macros with args #define _getaddress(a) (&a) /* This macro returns address of a */ main() { double n; double *ptrToN; ptrToN = _getadress(n); } Compiler actually sees code below main() { double n; double *ptrToN; ptrToN = &n; } Often used for debuging #ifdef debug #define _D(a) a #else #define _D(a) #endif
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 Way to group things that belong together e.g. Representing 3d coord (x,y,z) No structures double cx, cy, cz; cx=3.;cy=3.;cz=2; plot(cx, cy, cz); Structure struct { double cx; double cy; double cz; } point; point.cx = 3.; point.cy=3.;point.cz=2.; Selection operators for structures: If coord is a structure and cptr is a pointer to coord, then element cx e.g. can be accessed by coord.cx or (*cptr).cx or cptr->cx. Latter two are indirect (or pointer) element selections.
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Structures and Types

Structures and Types

Struct alone is still unclear - typedef typedef struct { double cx; double cy; double cz; } t_point; main() { t_point point; point.cx = 3.; point.cy=3.; point.cz=2.; plot(point); }
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Structures and Types

Derived types just like basic types e.g. can use arrays typedef struct { double cx; double cy; double cz; } t_point; main() { t_point point[10]; int i; for (i=0;i<10;++i) { point[i].cx = 3.; point[i].cy=3.; point[i].cz=(double)i; } for (i=0;i<10;++i) { plot(point[i]); } }

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15

Memory Management
Application code creates variables and arrays at runtime <stdlib.h> - malloc, calloc, free, realloc + sizeof e.g main(int argc, char *argv[]) { double *foo; int nel; int i; /* Create an array of size nel at runtime */ sscanf(argv[1],%d\n,&nel); foo = (double *) calloc(nel,sizeof(*foo)); if ( foo == NULL ) exit(-1); for (i=0;i<nel;++i) { foo[i]=i; } free(foo); }

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Remember - *, &
short a; short *ptr_to_a; a = 1; ptr_to_a = &a; *ptr_to_a = 1;

a
0001 0002 0003
0xFF

0001
0x00

&a

Here compiler allocated memory for you

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foo = (double *) calloc(3,sizeof(*foo));

Here application allocates memory explicitly. Allows more control but requires careful bookkeeping.
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Summary
Examined C-pointers File Input/Output and the routines for formatted reads and writes Compiling C routines The C preprocessor cpp. Structures in C Memory management

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12.010 Lec 09

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12.010 Computational Methods of Scientific Programming

Fall 2011

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