C41. C Organizing a C Program

Organizing a C Program

Now that we've seen the major elements that make up a C program, it's time to develop a strategy for their arrangement. For now. we'll assume that a programalways fits into a single file. Chapter 15 shows how to organize a program that's split over several files.

So far, we've seen that a program may contain the following:

Preprocessing directives such as # include and # define Typedefinitions

Declarations of external variables

Function prototypes

Function definitions

C imposes only a few rules on the order of these items: A preprocessing directive doesn't take effect until the line on which it appears. A type name can't be used until it's been defined. A variable can't be used until it's declared. Although C isn't as picky about functions, I strongly recommend that every function be defined or declared prior to its first call. (C99 makes this a requirement anyway.)

There are several ways to organize a program so that these rules are obeyed. Here's one possible ordering:

#include directives

#def ine directives

Type definitions

Declarations of external variables

Prototypes for functions other than main

Definition of main

Definitions of other functions

It makes sense to put #include directives first, since they bring in information that will likely be needed in several places within the program. #def ine direc­tives create macros, which are generally used throughout the program. Putting type definitions above the declarations of external variables is logical, since the declara­tions of these variables may refer to the type names just defined. Declaring exter­nal variables next makes them available to all the functions that follow. Declaring all functions except for main avoids the problems that arise when a function is called before the compiler has seen its prototype. This practice also makes it possi­ble to arrange the function definitions in any order whatsoever: alphabetically by function name or with related functions grouped together, for example. Defining main before the other functions makes it easier for a reader to locate the pro­gram's starting point.

A final suggestion: Precede each function definition by a boxed comment that gives the name of the function, explains its purpose, discusses the meaning of each parameter, describes its return value (if any), and lists any side effects it has (such as modifying external variables).