Before we study basic building blocks of the C programming language, let us look a bare minimum C program structure so that we can take it as a reference in upcoming chapters

C Hello World Example

A C program basically consists of the following parts:

Let us look at a simple code that would print the words "Hello World":

	#include < stdio.h >
	int main()
	{
	/* my first program in C */
	printf("Hello, World! \n");
	return 0;
	}
Compile & Execute C Program

Let's look at how to save the source code in a file, and how to compile and run it. Followingare the simple steps:

  1. Open a text editor and add the above-mentioned code.
  2. Save the file as hello.c
  3. Open a command prompt and go to the directory where you saved the file.
  4. Type gcc hello.c and press enter to compile your code.
  5. If there are no errors in your code, the command prompt will take you to the next line and would generate a.out executable file.
  6. Now, type a.out to execute your program.
  7. You will be able to see "Hello World" printed on the screen