C Statements
Statements
A computer program is a list of "instructions" to be "executed" by a computer.
In a programming language, these programming instructions are called statements.
The following statement "instructs" the compiler to print the text "Hello World" to the screen:
It is important that you end the statement with a semicolon ;
If you forget the semicolon (;), an error will occur, and the program will not run:
Many Statements
Most C programs contain many statements.
The statements are executed, one by one, in the same order as they are written:
Example explained
From the example above, we have three statements:
printf("Hello World!");printf("Have a good day!");return 0;
The first statement is executed first (print "Hello World!" to the screen).
Then the second statement is executed (print "Have a good day!" to the screen).
And at last, the third statement is executed (end the C program successfully).
You will learn more about statements while reading this tutorial. For now, just remember to always end them with a semicolon to avoid any errors.
Coming up: The next chapter will teach you how to control the output and how to insert new lines to make it more readable.
