Structured Programming through C

Structured Programming through C Viva Questions and Answers

1. What is C language?
C is a programming language developed at AT & T’s Bell Laboratories of USA in 1972.
The C programming language is a standardized programming language developed in the
early 1970s by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie for use on the UNIX operating system.
It has since spread to many other operating systems, and is one of the most widely used
programming languages.
2. What are the types of constants in c?
C constants can ba divided into two categories :

Primary constants

Secondary constants
3. What are the types of C intructions?
Now that we have written a few programs let us look at the instructions that we used in
these programs. There are basically three types of instructions in C :

Type Declaration Instruction

Arithmetic Instruction

Control Instruction
4. What is a pointer?
Pointers are variables which stores the address of another variable. That variable may be
a scalar (including another pointer), or an aggregate (array or structure). The pointed-to object
may be part of a larger object, such as a field of a structure or an element in an array.
5. What is the difference between arrays and pointers?
Pointers are used to manipulate data using the address. Pointers use • operator to access
the data pointed to by them.
Arrays are a collection of similar datatype. Array use subscripted variables to access and
manipulate data. Array variables can be Equivalently written using pointer expression.
6. What are the uses of a pointer?
Pointer is used in the following cases

It is used to access array elements.

It is used for dynamic memory allocation.

It is used in Call by reference.

It is used in data structures like trees, graph, linked list etc.
7. What is the purpose of main() function?
The function main() invokes other functions within it.It is the first function to be called
when the program starts execution.

It is the starting function.

It returns an int value to the environment that called the program.

Recursive call is allowed for main( ) also.

B.Naresh, Assistant Professor in B.V.R.I.C.E, Dept of MCA

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 Structured Programming through C

It is a user-defined function.
8. What are the different storage classes in C?
There are four types of storage classes.

Automatic

Extern

Regiter

Static
9. What is a structure?
Structure constitutes a super data type which represents several different data types in a
single unit. A structure can be initialized if it is static or global.
10. What is arrays?
Array is a variable that hold multiple elements which has the same data type.
11. What is the difference between #include‹ › and #include “ ”?
#include<>: Specifically used for built in header files.
#include “ ” : Specifically used for used for user defined/created n header file.
12. What are the advantages of the functions?

It reduces the Complexity in a program by reducing the code.

Function is easily understanding and reliability and execution is faster.

It also reduces the Time to run a program. In other way, Its directly proportional to
Complexity.

Its easy to find-out the errors due to the blocks made as function definition outside the
main function.
13. How do declare an array?
We can declare an array by specify its data type, name and the number of elements the
array holds between square brackets immediately following the array name.
syntax : data_type array_name[size];
14. What are the differences between structures and union?
A structure variable contains each of the named members, and its size is large enough to
hold all the members. Structure elements are of same size.
A Union contains one of the named members at a given time and is large enough to hold
the largest member. Union element can be of different sizes.
15. What is the difference between arrays and pointers?
Array is collection of similar datatype. it is a static memory allocation means we can not
increment and decrement the arry size once we allocated. and we can not increment the base
address, reassign address.
Pointer is a dynamic memory allocation. we can allocate the size as we want, assigning
into another variable and base address incrimination is allowed.

B.Naresh, Assistant Professor in B.V.R.I.C.E, Dept of MCA

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 Structured Programming through C

16. What is recursion?

A recursion function is one which calls itself either directly or indirectly it must halt at a
definite point to avoid infinite recursion.
17. What are the characteristics of arrays in C?

An array holds elements that have the same data type.

Array elements are stored in subsequent memory locations

Two-dimensional array elements are stored row by row in subsequent memory locations.

Array name represents the address of the starting element
18. What is the difference between for loop and a while loop? What are it uses?
For executing a set of statements fixed number of times we use for loop while when the
number of iterations to be performed is not known in advance we use while loop.
19. What is the difference between printf(...) and sprintf(...)?
printf(....) -------------> is standard output statement
sprintf(......)-----------> is formatted output statement.
20. What is the difference between malloc and calloc?
malloc is use for memory allocation and initialize garbage values.malloc () for allocating
the single block of memory, where as calloc is same as malloc but it initialize 0 value.calloc ()
for allocating multiple blocks of memory.
21. What is the difference between #include‹ › and #include “ ”?
#include‹ › ----> Specifically used for built in header files.
#include “ ” ----> Specifically used for used for user defined/created n header file.
22. What is dynamic array?
The dynamic array is an array data structure which can be resized during runtime which
means elements can be added and removed.
23. What the advantages of using Unions?
When the C compiler is allocating memory for unions it will always reserve enough room
for the largest member.
24. What is the difference between Strings and Arrays?
String is a sequence of characters ending with NULL .it can be treated as a one
dimensional array of characters terminated by a NULL character.
25. In C, why is the void pointer useful? When would you use it?
The void pointer is useful because it is a generic pointer that any pointer can be cast into
and back again without loss of information.
26. What is a function?
A large program is subdivided into a number of smaller programs or subprograms. Each
subprogram specifies one or more actions to be performed for the larger program. Such sub
programs are called functions.

B.Naresh, Assistant Professor in B.V.R.I.C.E, Dept of MCA

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 Structured Programming through C

27. What is an argument?

An argument is an entity used to pass data from the calling to a called function.
28. What are built in functions?
The functions that are predefined and supplied along with the compiler are known as built
in functions. They are also known as library functions.
29. Can a Structure contain a Pointer to itself?
Yes such structures are called self-referential structures.
30. What is the difference between syntax vs logical error?
Syntax Error: These involves validation of syntax of language. Compiler prints diagnostic
message.
Logical Error: Logical error are caused by an incorrect algorithm or by a statement mistyped in
such a way that it doesn’t violet syntax of language. Difficult to find.
31. What is pre-increment and post-increment?
++n (pre increment) increments n before its value is used in an assignment operation or
any expression containing it. n++ (post increment) does increment after the value of n is used.
32. What is meant by file opening?
The action of connecting a program to a file is called opening of a file. This requires
creating an I/O stream before reading or writing the data.
33. What is a file pointer?
The pointer to a FILE data type is called as a stream pointer or a file pointer. A file
pointer points to the block of information of the stream that had just been opened.
34. Can a variable be both constant and volatile?
Yes. The const modifier means that this code cannot change the value of the variable, but
that does not mean that the value cannot be changed by means outside this code.
The function itself did not change the value of the timer, so it was declared const.
However, the value was changed by hardware on the computer, so it was declared volatile. If a
variable is both const and volatile, the two modifiers can appear in either order.
35. What is FILE?
Ans: FILE is a predefined data type. It is defined in stdio.h file.
36. In C functions, what is the easiest way to pass arrays as arguments ?
Passing by reference is the easiest way to pass arrays as arguments in C functions.

B.Naresh, Assistant Professor in B.V.R.I.C.E, Dept of MCA

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