Input and Output in C (scanf and printf) Explained

Input and Output in C (scanf and printf) Explained

Introduction Up until now, every program we have written in this series has been static. We hardcoded variables, locked them with constants, and printed the exact same result every time we pressed "Run." But real software does not work like that. Real software interacts with the user. When you log into a website, you type your username. When you play a game, you press keys to move your character. Software is a constant cycle of taking data in (Input), processing it, and pushing data out (Output). In C programming, this cycle is handled by two extremely powerful functions built into the stdio.h library: printf and scanf . In this chapter, we will learn how to read data from the keyboard, understand the mysterious "address-of" operator, and build your very first interactive calculator application. Output in C: A Quick Recap of printf We are already quite familiar with Output. The printf() function pushes data from the computer's memory out to the user's screen. int …