Learn C the Hard Way

You Will Learn C!

Zed Shaw has crafted the perfect course for the beginning C programmer eager to advance their skills in any language. Follow it and you will learn the many skills early and junior programmers need to succeed–just like the hundreds of thousands of programmers Zed has taught to date! You bring discipline, commitment, persistence, and experience with any programming language; the author supplies everything else.

In Learn C the Hard Way, you’ll learn C by working through 52 brilliantly crafted exercises. Watch Zed Shaw’s teaching video and read the exercise. Type his code precisely. (No copying and pasting!) Fix your mistakes. Watch the programs run. As you do, you’ll learn what good, modern C programs look like; how to think more effectively about code; and how to find and fix mistakes far more efficiently. Most importantly, you’ll master rigorous defensive programming techniques, so you can use any language to create software that protects itself from malicious activity and defects.

Through practical projects you’ll apply what you learn to build confidence in your new skills. Shaw teaches the key skills you need to start writing excellent C software, including

• Setting up a C environment
• Basic syntax and idioms
• Compilation, make files, and linkers
• Operators, variables, and data types
• Program control
• Arrays and strings
• Functions, pointers, and structs
• Memory allocation
• I/O and files
• Libraries
• Data structures, including linked lists, sort, and search
• Stacks and queues
• Debugging, defensive coding, and automated testing
• Fixing stack overflows, illegal memory access, and more
• Breaking and hacking your own C code

It’ll Be Hard at First. But Soon, You’ll Just Get It–And That Will Feel Great!

This tutorial will reward you for every minute you put into it. Soon, you’ll know one of the world’s most powerful programming languages. You’ll be a C programmer.

Watch Zed, too! The accompanying DVD contains 5+ hours of passionate, powerful teaching: a complete C video course! If you purchase the digital edition, be sure to read “Where Are the Companion Content Files” at the end of the eBook to learn how to access the videos.

Table of Contents

0 The setup

1 Dust off that compiler

2 Using makefiles to build

3 Formatted printing

4 Using a debugger

5 Memorizing C operators

6 Memorizing C syntax

7 Variables and types

8 If, else-if, else

9 While-loop and boolean expressions

10 Switch statements

11 Arrays and strings

12 Sizes and arrays

13 For-loops and arrays of strings

14 Writing and using functions

15 Pointers, dreaded pointers

16 Structs and pointers to them

17 Heap and stack memory allocation

18 Pointers to functions

19 Zed’s awesome debug macros

20 Advanced debugging techniques

21 Advanced data types and flow control

22 The stack, scope, and globals

23 Meet Duff’s device

24 Input, output, files

25 Variable argument functions

26 Project logfind

27 Creative and defensive programming

28 Intermediate makefiles

29 Libraries and linking

30 Automated testing

31 Common undefined behavior

32 Double linked lists

33 Linked list algorithms

34 Dynamic array

35 Sorting and searching

36 Safer strings

37 Hashmaps

38 Hashmap algorithms

39 String algorithms

40 Binary search trees

41 Project devpkg

42 Stacks and queues

43 A simple statistics engine

44 Ring buffer

45 A simple TCP/IP client

46 Ternary search tree

47 A fast URL router

48 A simple network server

49 A statistics server

50 Routing the statistics

51 Storing the statistics

52 Hacking and improving your server

About the Author

Zed Shaw is an avid guitar player, programmer, and writer whose books teach people all over the world how to write software. His books Learn Python the Hard Way and Learn Ruby the Hard Way (both now in their third editions) have been read by millions of people around the world. His software has been used by many large and small companies. His essays are often quoted and read by members of many geek communities. An entertaining and lively writer, he will keep you laughing and make you think.