Array notation involves the array’s name followed by a set of square brackets. Within these brackets is a reference to the array element’s number. It’s important to remember that the first element is zero. But the subscript need not always be a constant integer.
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The challenge for this month’s Exercise is to calculate the standard deviation for a given set of data points. It’s a “whole population calculation” because all the data points are present. The trick is to follow the equation, transforming it from cryptic math mumbo-jumbo into C code.
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I’m always mindful of the beginner when I write code for this blog. Even with my own code, I often go to pains to write things “the long way” just because I’m in the habit. Not every coder is so thoughtful. The reason is that C tends toward obfuscation. We must revel in this capability.
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Even when statistics has barely brushed by you on the subway, you probably know the term standard deviation. It refers to how data is distributed in a group, their distance from the mean. You can use your C programming kung fu to code the standard deviation of a data set, which is the challenge for this month’s Exercise.
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You can’t just slap a data type upon a variable declared as void. No, a void type can be assigned a pointer. But even then, you can’t just typecast that pointer as an int and get away with it.
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The four standard data types in C programming are char, int, float, and double. A fifth type is void, which is used to declare storage of an unknown type. My goal is to see how badly I can abuse this data type.
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Today marks this blog’s 11th anniversary. The first post was made 11 years ago on April 13th, 2013. This date coincided with the release of my book, Beginning Programming with C For Dummies.
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As with the select() function covered in last week’s Lesson, you can use other networking functions to scan for pending standard input while a program otherwise spins busy. The epoll() family of functions allow for such monitoring.
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This month’s Exercise may not have been challenging. Still, remember that blog is about learning the C language. Sometimes performing what could be a simple task may end up being complex than you anticipated.
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A network program monitors one or more file descriptors (such as sockets) for activity. It reacts when information is ready to process. This technique can also be applied to keyboard input, though not as elegantly as the kbhit() function shown in last week’s Lesson.
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