#C

Articles about C — exploring patterns, best practices, and real-world implementations in production systems.

8 posts tagged with c. ← All posts

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Pratik Dhanave · ·7 min read

The Preprocessor, Undefined Behavior, and Safe C

Two things separate C programmers who ship reliable code from those who ship time bombs: understanding the preprocessor (the text-substitution pass that runs before compilation) and respecting undefined behavior (the operations C says have no defined meaning at all). This closing post covers both, plus the multi-file structure of real programs and the idioms that keep C safe — turning the whole series into a working discipline.

Two things separate C programmers who ship reliable code from those who ship time bombs: understanding the preprocessor (the text-substitution pass before compilation) and respecting undefined behavior (operations C says have no meaning at all). This closing post covers both, multi-file programs, and the idioms that keep C safe.

#C#Undefined Behavior#Best Practices#Systems Programming#Programming Languages
Pratik Dhanave · ·7 min read

Structs, Unions, and Data Structures

Structs let you bundle related data into a single named type — the closest C gets to an object. Combined with pointers and heap allocation, they're how you build every data structure C is famous for: linked lists, trees, hash tables. This post covers structs, their cousins unions and enums, the memory-layout details that bite (padding), and puts it all together to build a linked list from scratch.

Structs let you bundle related data into a single named type — the closest C gets to an object. Combined with pointers and heap allocation, they're how you build every data structure C is famous for: linked lists, trees, hash tables. This post covers structs, unions, enums, the padding that bites, and builds a linked list from scratch.

#C#Data Structures#Systems Programming#Computer Science#Programming Languages
Pratik Dhanave · ·7 min read

Dynamic Memory Management

Stack memory is automatic but rigid — sized at compile time and gone when a function returns. For data whose size you only know at runtime, or that must outlive the function that created it, C gives you the heap and four functions to manage it: `malloc`, `calloc`, `realloc`, and `free`. With that power comes C's heaviest responsibility: every allocation you make, you must free — exactly once, and never use again.

Stack memory is automatic but rigid. For data whose size you only know at runtime, or that must outlive its function, C gives you the heap and four functions: malloc, calloc, realloc, and free. With that power comes C's heaviest responsibility: every allocation you make, you must free — exactly once, and never use again.

#C#Memory#Systems Programming#Computer Science#Programming Languages
Pratik Dhanave · ·6 min read

Arrays, Strings, and Memory Layout

Arrays and strings in C are where the pointer model from the last post becomes concrete — and where C's most infamous security bugs live. An array is a contiguous block of memory whose name decays to a pointer; a string is just an array of characters with a null terminator and no length field. Understanding both, and the buffer overflows they invite, is essential C literacy.

Arrays and strings are where the pointer model becomes concrete — and where C's most infamous security bugs live. An array is a contiguous block whose name decays to a pointer; a string is just a char array with a null terminator and no length field. Understanding both, and the buffer overflows they invite, is essential C literacy.

#C#Memory#Systems Programming#Security#Programming Languages
Pratik Dhanave · ·6 min read

Pointers

Pointers are the heart of C, the feature that makes it powerful and the one that makes it dangerous. A pointer is just a variable that holds a memory address — but that simple idea is how C functions modify their callers, how arrays and strings work, how dynamic memory is managed, and how data structures are built. Everything hard and everything essential in C runs through pointers.

Pointers are the heart of C — the feature that makes it powerful and the one that makes it dangerous. A pointer is just a variable holding a memory address, but that simple idea is how C functions modify their callers, how arrays and strings work, how dynamic memory is managed, and how data structures are built. Everything essential runs through pointers.

#C#Pointers#Systems Programming#Computer Science#Programming Languages
Pratik Dhanave · ·6 min read

Control Flow, Functions, and the Stack

C's control flow is the ancestor of the syntax you already know — `if`, `while`, `for`, `switch`. Its functions look familiar too, but they hide a defining C fact: arguments are passed by value, always copied. Understanding pass-by-value, and the call stack that makes function calls work, is the bridge to the hardest and most important topic in C — pointers.

C's control flow is the ancestor of the syntax you already know, and its functions look familiar too — but they hide a defining C fact: arguments are passed by value, always copied. Understanding pass-by-value, and the call stack that makes function calls work, is the bridge to the hardest and most important topic in C: pointers.

#C#Systems Programming#Programming Languages#Computer Science
Pratik Dhanave · ·6 min read

Types, Variables, and Operators

In C, a type is a promise about how many bytes a value occupies and how to interpret them. There's no hidden bignum, no automatic string, no safety rail — just fixed-width integers, floating-point, and the bit patterns underneath. Understanding C's types means understanding sizes, signedness, and the surprising rules of integer promotion, because in C the difference between `int` and `unsigned` can be the difference between correct and catastrophically wrong.

In C, a type is a promise about how many bytes a value occupies and how to interpret them — no hidden bignum, no safety rail, just fixed-width integers and the bits underneath. Understanding C's types means understanding sizes, signedness, and the surprising rules of integer promotion, where the difference between int and unsigned can be catastrophic.

#C#Systems Programming#Programming Languages#Computer Science
Pratik Dhanave · ·6 min read

Why C, and How It Compiles

C is fifty years old and still runs the world — operating systems, databases, language runtimes, embedded devices, and the standard libraries under almost everything else. Learning C is learning how computers actually work: memory, pointers, and the thin layer between your code and the machine. This series builds C from the ground up, and it starts with what C is and what really happens when you compile it.

C is fifty years old and still runs the world — operating systems, databases, language runtimes, embedded devices. Learning C is learning how computers actually work: memory, pointers, and the thin layer between your code and the machine. This series builds C from the ground up, starting with what C is and what really happens when you compile it.

#C#Systems Programming#Programming Languages#Computer Science#Databases

All posts on this site are written by Pratik Dhanave, an Agentic AI Architect with 7+ years building production distributed systems, multi-agent AI platforms, and cloud-native infrastructure. About the author → Each article includes working code, architecture diagrams, and references to the specific frameworks and standards discussed. Browse all posts or explore related topics using the tag cloud above.