By profession I am a C++ programmer. However I first learned the C programming language. Officially I only worked for one year on a job that exclusively required C. Ever since then the gigs were C++ programming jobs. However C++ is really an extension of C. And you can use a C++ compiler to work with C code. In fact, you can write C++ code but really be writing mostly C style functions.The hard core programmers on my team are also C++ programmers. Every once in a while we get a Java or Visual Basic programmer who is moonlighting as a C++ programmer to pay the bills. Depending on whether we like these programmers, us C++ guys will either empathize with them or tease them. One current member of our team is a VB guy. And he gets the short end of the stick. The boys usually treat him like a substandard programmer. Because everyone knows that basic is not a real computer science programming language.
To get back at me, the Visual Basic developer gave me a copy of C Primer Plus. His intent was to inform me that, although I may be a C++ developers, I need to brush up on my C programming skills. Today I had to reinstall my Oracle Reports Builder software. This took a long time. So I decided to skim the C Primer Plus book. The table of contents mostly outlined topics I knew well. However I found the section on variable types quite interesting. So I decided to read and study up on it.
Here is a list of the different variable types in C. Do you know the difference between them? What is the scope of the different variable types? How long does the variable last and retain its value? Maybe the answers will be the topic for another post.
- Automatic variables
- External variables
- Static variables
- Register variables
