Features of C Language

Simple and Efficient

The basic syntax style of implementing C language is very simple and easy to learn. This makes the language easily comprehensible and enables a programmer to redesign or create a new application. C is usually used as an introductory language to introduce programming to school students because of this feature.

Portability

Portability, defined as a measure of how easily an application can be transferred from one computer environment to another or one platform to another, here platform means diferent operating system and harware architecture os may be Windows,Linux,macOS etc. A computer software application is considered portable to a new environment if the effort required to adapt it to the new environment is within reasonable limits. Portability refers to the ability of an application to move across environments, not just across platforms. To clarify, a computer platform generally refers to the operating system and computer hardware only. A computer environment is much broader and may include the hardware, the operating system and the interfaces with other software, users and programmers. C programs are machine-independent which means that you can run the fraction of a code created in C on various machines with none or some machine-specific changes. Hence, it provides the functionality of using a single code on multiple systems depending on the requirement.

Portability

Fast

It is a well-known fact that statically typed programming languages are faster than dynamic ones. C is a statically typed programming language, which gives it an edge over other dynamic languages. Also, unlike Java and Python, which are interpreter-based, C is a compiler-based program. This makes the compilation and execution of codes faster. Another factor that makes C fast is the availability of only the essential and required features. Newer programming languages come with numerous features, which increase functionality but reduce efficiency and speed. Since C offers limited but essential features, the headache of processing these features reduces, resulting in increased speed.

Extensibility

You can easily (and quickly) extend a C program. This means that if a code is already written, you can add new features to it with a few alterations. Basically, it allows adding new features, functionalities, and operations to an existing C program. Function-Rich Libraries C comes with an extensive set of libraries with several built-in functions that make the life of a programmer easy. Even a beginner can easily code using these built-in functions. You can also create your user-defined functions and add them to C libraries. The availability of such a vast scope of functions and operations allows a programmer to build a vast array of programs and applications.

Function-Rich Libraries

Function-Rich Libraries C comes with an extensive set of libraries with several built-in functions that make the life of a programmer easy. Even a beginner can easily code using these built-in functions. You can also create your user-defined functions and add them to C libraries. The availability of such a vast scope of functions and operations allows a programmer to build a vast array of programs and applications.

Dynamic Memory Management

One of the most significant features of C language is its support for dynamic memory management (DMA). It means that you can utilize and manage the size of the data structure in C during runtime. C also provides several predefined functions to work with memory allocation. For instance, you can use the free() function to free up the allocated memory at any time. Similarly, there are other functions such as malloc(), calloc(), and realloc() to perform operations on data structure and memory allocations.

Modularity With Structured Language

C is a general-purpose structured language. This feature of C language allows you to break a code into different parts using functions which can be stored in the form of libraries for future use and reusability.. Structuring the code using functions increases the visual appeal and makes the program more organized and less prone to errors.

Mid-Level Programming Language

Although C was initially developed to do only low-level programming, it now also supports the features and functionalities of high-level programming, making it a mid-level language. And as a mid-level programming language, it provides the best of both worlds. For instance, C allows direct manipulation of hardware, which high-level programming languages do not offer.

Pointers

With the use of pointers in C, you can directly interact with memory. As the name suggests, pointers point to a specific location in the memory and interact directly with it. Using the C pointers, you can operate with memory, arrays, functions, and structures. A pointer is a variable that stores the memory address of another variable as its value.
A pointer variable points to a data type (like int) of the same type, and is created with the * operator. The address of the variable you are working with is assigned to the pointer:
int myAge = 43; // An int variable
int* ptr = &myAge; // A pointer variable, with the name ptr, that stores the address of myAge

Recursion

C language provides the feature of recursion. Recursion means that you can create a function that can call itself multiple times until a given condition is true, just like the loops. Recursion in C programming provides the functionality of code reusability and backtracking.