C Programming — Tutorials

217Total chapters

25Modules

217Chapters live

25 / 25Active modules

Sequenced, not collected

Every concept arrives after its prerequisites. Hexadecimal before masks, objects and addresses before pointers, pointers and lifetime before dynamic memory, C representation and the SystemVerilog/C boundary before DPI type mapping. Nothing is explained with something you have not been taught yet.

Two parts, one dependency chain

Part I is a complete C education that stands on its own for any learner. Part II is the semiconductor continuation — it builds on Part I and deliberately never re-teaches it, applying the same integer widths, layout rules and pointers to hardware registers, reference models and DPI-C.

Correctness is taught, not assumed

Undefined behaviour, integer and lifetime bugs, warnings, assertions, debuggers and sanitizers get their own module, because in C it compiled is not the same as it is correct — and the same discipline carries into the DPI failures that corrupt data without raising an error.

C Programming Complete Curriculum

Your Learning Roadmap

217 chapters · 25 modules — two parts — a complete C foundation, then the C a semiconductor engineer needs for registers, reference models and DPI-C.

217of 217 chapters live

100% complete

Part I — Proper C Programming

A complete C foundation with no hardware prerequisite, taught against a stated language baseline: how a program is built and run, objects in memory, types and representation, expressions and conversions, control flow, functions and the call stack, arrays, pointers, strings, object lifetime and dynamic memory, structures and unions, multi-file builds and linking, the standard library, and the discipline of writing C that is correct rather than merely compiling.

Module 1

Understanding C and How Programs Work

1.1What C Is and What It Is Not 1.2Why C Exists and Where It Is Still Used 1.3Which C Are We Learning: Standards, Compilers and Extensions 1.4Your First C Program 1.5Compiling and Running a C Program 1.6From Source Code to Executable 1.7What Happens When a C Program Runs

Module 2

Values, Variables, Types and Representation

2.1Variables and Objects in C 2.2Memory, Addresses and How Objects Are Stored 2.3Declarations and Initialization 2.4Bits, Bytes and Hexadecimal Notation 2.5Why C Has Different Integer Types 2.6Signed and Unsigned Integers 2.7How Integers Are Encoded: Two's Complement 2.8char and Character Values 2.9Floating-Point Types and What They Cannot Represent 2.10Boolean Values in C 2.11Constants, Literals and const 2.12sizeof, size_t and the Size of a Type

Module 3

Expressions and Operators

3.1What an Expression Is 3.2Arithmetic Operators 3.3Integer Division and Remainder 3.4Assignment and Compound Assignment 3.5Comparison Operators 3.6Logical Operators and Short-Circuit Evaluation 3.7Increment and Decrement 3.8Bitwise Operators 3.9Shift Operators 3.10Operator Precedence and Associativity 3.11Evaluation Order and Side Effects 3.12Type Conversion, Casts and Integer Promotion

Module 4

Decisions and Control Flow

4.1if, else and Multi-Way Decisions 4.2The Conditional Operator 4.3switch, Case Labels and Fallthrough 4.4while and do while Loops 4.5for Loops 4.6break and continue 4.7Off-by-One Errors and Infinite Loops 4.8goto: What It Does and Where It Is Used

Module 5

Functions and Program Decomposition

5.1Why Functions Exist 5.2Defining and Calling a Function 5.3Parameters, Arguments and Pass-by-Value 5.4Return Values 5.5Function Declarations and Prototypes 5.6Scope: Where a Name Is Visible 5.7The Call Stack: Frames, Locals and Returns 5.8Recursion and How It Uses the Stack 5.9Designing Small, Testable Functions

Module 6

Arrays

6.1Arrays: Contiguous Storage of One Type 6.2Declaring and Initializing Arrays 6.3Indexing and Traversing an Array 6.4Array Bounds and What Happens When You Cross Them 6.5Multidimensional Arrays

Module 7

Pointers

7.1What a Pointer Actually Represents 7.2Address-of and Dereferencing 7.3Pointer Types and Why They Matter 7.4Null Pointers 7.5Pointers as Function Parameters 7.6Pointers and Arrays: The Real Relationship 7.7Arrays as Function Parameters 7.8Pointer Arithmetic 7.9Arrays of Pointers 7.10Pointers to Pointers 7.11const and Pointers 7.12void * and Generic Pointers 7.13Function Pointers

Module 8

Strings

8.1C Strings: Character Arrays and Null Termination 8.2String Literals and String Pointers 8.3Writing Your Own String Functions 8.4Standard String Functions 8.5String Bugs: Overflow, Truncation and Missing Terminators

Module 9

Memory and Object Lifetime

9.1Object Lifetime in C 9.2Automatic Objects 9.3Static Objects and Static Storage Duration 9.4The Stack and the Heap as Mental Models 9.5Why Dynamic Allocation Exists 9.6malloc and free 9.7calloc and realloc 9.8Ownership: Who Frees What 9.9Memory Leaks 9.10Use-After-Free and Double-Free 9.11Dangling and Invalid Pointers 9.12Uninitialized Memory and Indeterminate Values

Module 10

Structures, Unions, Enums and User-Defined Types

10.1Why C Needs User-Defined Types 10.2Defining a struct and Accessing Its Members 10.3Pointers to Structures and the Arrow Operator 10.4Passing and Returning Structures 10.5Structure Layout: Padding and Alignment 10.6Arrays of Structures 10.7Unions and Shared Storage 10.8Enumerations 10.9typedef and Type Names 10.10Bit-Fields and Their Limitations

Module 11

Building Multi-File C Programs

11.1Declarations vs Definitions 11.2What a Translation Unit Is 11.3Header Files and Include Guards 11.4Linkage: extern, static and Names Shared Across Files 11.5Scope, Lifetime and Linkage: Three Different Questions 11.6Object-Like and Function-Like Macros 11.7Conditional Compilation 11.8How Separate Compilation Works 11.9What the Linker Does and Why It Fails 11.10Building a Project: Objects, Libraries and Make

Module 12

Standard Library, Files and Program Interfaces

12.1How to Read the C Standard Library 12.2printf and Formatted Output 12.3Reading Input Safely 12.4File Streams: Opening, Reading, Closing 12.5Binary Files: Modes, Bytes and Layout Assumptions 12.6Command-Line Arguments 12.7Program Exit and Return Codes 12.8errno and Library Error Reporting 12.9Memory, String and Utility Functions Worth Knowing

Module 13

Writing Correct and Reliable C

13.1It Compiled Is Not the Same as It Is Correct 13.2Undefined Behavior in C 13.3Unspecified and Implementation-Defined Behavior 13.4Integer Overflow and Wraparound 13.5Signed and Unsigned Comparison Bugs 13.6Out-of-Bounds Access 13.7Taking Compiler Warnings Seriously 13.8assert and Checking Assumptions 13.9Debugging a C Program 13.10Sanitizers and Memory Tools 13.11Defensive Habits That Prevent C Bugs

Part II — C for SoC Verification, VLSI Engineers & DPI-C

The C a semiconductor engineer needs, built on Part I and never repeating it: fixed-width types, alignment and layout as a hardware data format, bit masks and field extraction, memory-mapped registers and read-modify-write, what volatile does and does not guarantee, C around a verification environment, and DPI-C end to end — the SystemVerilog/C boundary, type mapping, packed and open arrays, both call directions, reference models that are actually trustworthy, and debugging an integration when it fails.

Module 14

C Through a Hardware Engineer's Eyes