Nee some help understanding programming

1.

#include is a preprocessor directive (everything that begins with a # is a preprocessor directive). The preprocessor runs before your code is actually compiled. This specific directive (#include) includes the piece of code you are in the <> signs. In other words, you are simply asking the compiler to "give" you all the code from the <stdio.h> library. Why? Because this library includes some functions you need. You didn't post a full program, but in raw C, you usually need this library to be able to use scanf() and printf() - Try removing this include directive, and you will see your code won't compile, unless you delete all the calls to printf() and scanf().

2.

I will assume you actually mean int main(){...} (because main() is the main function of your program, but the way you put it looks like you are declaring a variable called main that holds an int). main() is the main function of your program and it will return an int 99% of the time. You can do void main() too but some programmers consider it bad practice. It's better to make it an int main(). That aside, if you don't have this function, you have no program because the main() function is the entrance to your program. You need it.

3.

printf() is simply a function that will print whatever you want into the console, and...

4.

scanf() is a function that will read as many variables as you want from the user so you can use them in your program later.

You forgot a closing } at the end of your second if condition:

Currently you have:



Should be:

Yes, that's because of the way the parser work. Instead of detecting the missing }, it detected there was no matching opening brace, and it did that on line 22. Unfortunately the compiler is not very smart with these things so you gotta look beyond the line it tells you about to find your errors sometimes.

quote Will

Are you not using any kind of IDE?

I dont know what a IDE is but if your asking what software/compiler im using its DevC++

DevC++ counts as an IDE. An IDE is an Integrated Development Environment. It's basically your "studio" to program.

else if can be used to test different things:



You can use an standard if if you want. That's up to you and it will have the same effect.

Actually, semantically speaking, it makes more sense to use "else if" over various ifs that will check for different conditions of the same thing.
I don't expect you to understand what I just said right now, but once you become better at programming you will see why "else if" makes way more sense than "if" when it comes to semantics.

Again, it doesn't matter if you decide to ditch else if statements completely, but for more semantically correct code you will want to use it under some circumstances.

You also forgot a return statement at the end of your main, which may or may not effect the result of the program. That would depend on the compiler; some of them don't mind, and others scream bloody murder.