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Symlink Analyzation Function in C

Here is a simple function for performing symlink analysis using C.  The readlink function gets the value of the symbolic link filename. The file name that the link points to is copied into buffer. This file name string is not null-terminated; readlink normally returns the number of characters copied. The size argument specifies the maximum number of characters to copy, usually the allocation size of buffer. There is significant utility for such a function in a variety of contexts. Have fun with it! h/t Tanguy

GDB Hash Script in C

Here is a very simple implementation of a GDB hash algorithm as written in C. The script accepts a single contiguous string of any size as input via command line argument. You can easily use a file as input using a pipe or redirect. For example:     #./gdb_script < input_file.txt or     #./gdb_script thisismystring Each character in the string is input as a non-contiguous block of integers, for simplicity in reviewing output. Enjoy!

Linked List Creation in C

Below is an example of how to implement a Linked List function using C. Note that the example below does not include a main function or preprocessor imperatives.

Dynamically Assign Filenames within an Iterative Loop

This question came up on Stack Exchange ; Using C, how can you write filenames dynamically using an iterative variable loop? Or in English, you want to write some stuff to a bunch of different files, and have those files named in a logical manner like file1.file, file2.file, file3.file, ... etc. The answer is pretty simple, but a bit of a mind-bender when you are first getting started. I was also pretty astonished that all of the accepted "solutions" to the problem failed to compile. This is a pretty big issue on these programming solution websites. I think the reason for the problem is there are two groups of people: There are the people who want other people to think they can fix stuff. Then there are the people who can fix stuff. The two groups, obviously, have some overlap: people who can fix stuff and who want others to know about it. But there is also a statistically significant portion of both groups that do not overlap - people who can fix stuff who don't care

Programming in C Chapter V - Typecasting

In its simplest sense Typecasting is altering a computer's interpretation of data by implicitly or explicitly changing its data type; for example, by changing an `int` to a `float` and vice verse. To better understand typecasting, we must start with data types themselves. In programming languages like C, every variable has some kind of `type` that determines how the computer and the user interprets that variable. Each of these data types, for instance `int`, `long long`, `float` and `double` all have their own unique characteristics and are use to handle data types of various ranges and precision. Typecasting allows us to take a floating point number, like 3.14, and specifying the number before the decimal - 3 - by parsing it to an `int`. Let's us an example from the English language to better clarify what we mean. example.         WIND Each carefully manipulated line in the example above forms a unique symbol. However, these symbols are immediately identifiable

Programming in C Chapter IV - Precedence

Precedence is how we answer the question: What operations should we perform first? Whether in solving mathematical equations or writing source code, strict procedural rules of precedence allow the same operations to produce the same results every time. The first rule of precedence in the C programming language (and many others) is that we always work from the inner-most parentheses out-ward. This is particularly important to remember during bug-testing. Adding parentheses can be a good debugging tactic, but it is bad form to litter your code with un-needed parentheses. The second rule is that when operators have equal priority, we simply solve from left to right. With simple arithmetic, precedence or order of operations conforms to PEMDAS - from first to last, in pairs: parentheses and  exponents, multiplication and division, and finally addition and subtraction. Multiplication and division share the same precedence in this scenario because, functionally, they are the same oper

Programming in C Chapter III - Boolean Values & Operators

Today we will learn a bit about Boolean values, operators and expressions. Boolean values and conditions are named after 19th century mathematician and logician George Boole who pioneered a field of logic now referred to as Boolean logic; which is based upon grouping and comparing * Boolean values *. * Boolean Value * - a variable that has two possible conditions;  TRUE and FALSE .                                Similar to a light switch that can be either on or off, or how binary                                numbers can be either 1 or 0. Boolean values are seem fairly simply on the surface. However, they allow for a dynamic array of combined values that allow for nearly infinite complexity. * Boolean Operator * - A Boolean Operator combines two Boolean values  into a single value. The two most common of such operators are AND and OR , but there are quite a few additional Operators we will explore as well. * AND * - results in a value of TRUE ONLY if BOTH input

Programming in C - Chapter II - It Really IS Rocket Science

Problems arise with numerical expression in computing. In reality, there are an infinite number of real numbers. However there is clearly not an infinite amount of infinite memory even in the largest of super-computers, and memory that is addressable by an application is only a fraction of the total finite available memory. How to we deal with these obstacles? We will explain more in a moment. First let's overview in more detail how the C compiler handles numeral types. Consider the application below: #include <stdio.h> int main (void) {     float f = 1 / 10;     printf("%.2f\n", f);     return 0; } Here we declare a float, 1/10 which should clearly resolve to 0.1 or 0.10 since I am declaring that printf provide a float with two digits after the decimal point. However, upon complation and excecution the program will stubbornly return a value of "0.00". Why? The issue is that I am declaring a float as an operation of two integers - 1 and

C Programming Tutorial Part 1 - Compiling C using clang

Part 1 of our C Programming Tutorial covers the basics of compiling. What is a compiler? How does it work? How do I use a compiler to write programs in C? Every application that you write in C will have to be compiled. Furthermore, compilation errors and failures will be your first indication that you have made a mistake in your program somewhere. Understanding your compiler in and out will help you to write code much more efficiently.  For the purposes of our tutorial today, we will be discussing the clang compiler . clang is widely used - iOS developers should recognize it as the compiler used for developing iPhone apps as part of xCode and Apple's LLVM . I will also use a number of demonstrations; these demonstrations will include source code written in C, assembler and some garbage ASCII that is representative of machine code viewed through a text editor. For my part, I am using a Fedora Linux virtual machine for these demonstrations. That said, as I discussed initial