Modern C

Chapter 5. Basic values and data

This chapter covers

• Understanding the abstract state machine
• Working with types and values
• Initializing variables
• Using named constants
• Binary representations of types

We will now change our focus from “how things are to be done” (statements and expressions) to the things on which C programs operate: values^C and data^C. A concrete program at an instance in time has to represent values. Humans have a similar strategy: nowadays we use a decimal presentation to write numbers on paper using the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. But we have other systems to write numbers: for example, Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, and so on) or textual notation. To know that the word twelve denotes the value 12 is a nontrivial step ...