With many of the basics of C programming covered in the previous chapter, we now dive deeper into the details of C. In this chapter we revisit many of the topics from the previous chapter, such as arrays, strings, and structs, discussing them in more detail. We also introduce C’s pointer variables and dynamic memory allocation. Pointers provide a level of indirection to accessing program state, and dynamic memory allocation allows a program to adjust to changes in size and space needs as it runs, allocating more space as it needs it and freeing space it no longer needs. By understanding how and when to use pointer variables and dynamic memory allocation, a C programmer can design programs that are both powerful and efficient.

We begin with a discussion of the parts of program memory, as this will help in understanding many of the topics presented later. As the chapter progresses, we cover C file I/O and some advanced C topics including library linking and compiling to assembly code.