Introduction
C language is the first high-level programming language that most budding programmers learn. C is undoubtedly the most versatile language used in every field. It is often recommended as the best language for novices even after 50 years from its introduction. C is a general-purpose, high-level programming language. It is extremely popular, simple, and flexible to use. It is a structured, modular, and portable programming language that is machine-independent and extensively used to write various applications. It was created by Dennis Ritchie in 1972 while working at Bell Laboratories. Initially, C was created from ‘ALGOL,’ ‘BCPL’ and ‘B’ programming languages. Thus, the ‘C’ programming language contains all the features of these languages, and with time many additional concepts got added to it as the language was standardized. This blog is all about C projects. You can find information on various C projects that will help you hone your C programming skills in 2022.
C was initially used for system development work such as writing operating systems and device drivers. Later, middleware and application programs also started getting written in C. C was adopted as a system development language because it produces code that runs nearly as fast as assembly language code. C language is increasingly used in Operating Systems, Language Compilers, Assemblers, Text Editors, Print Spoolers, Data Bases, Language Interpreters, and utility programs.
Now let us come to the question of why to code a project in C. Well, C offers the following advantages over other languages.
Power: C is a high-level language, but it is as powerful as a low-level language such as assembly language. An optimally written C code can run as fast as assembly code. We can directly call instructions of any underlying hardware by calling its assembly code directly.
Flexibility: Seamless flexibility in memory management is one of the key reasons why C is so extensively used. C gives Programmers complete control over the memory space to allocate, deallocate and reallocate memory, resulting in increased efficiency and improved optimization if and when used properly.
Portability: C is a highly portable assembly language, and it has several integrated libraries with specialized functionality that allows it to interwork with any processor and memory architecture. Most system software such as Compilers, libraries, device drivers, boot up scripts, and interpreters for various other programming languages are typically written in C because C offers more efficient computation, faster execution, and accessibility.
Simplicity: C language offers the best of worlds for both high-level and low-level language. That is why it is often termed as a mid-level language because it has characteristics of both high-level and low-level languages. It has a simple syntax that helps users break down code into smaller and more legible parts that are easy to understand and work with. C is a modular and structured programming language. Usually, a C program is often written as small modules (functions) that are often reusable code and easy to work on.
High speed and dynamic Memory management: C supports dynamic memory allocations. The programmer is free to allocate memory at any time by using pre-defined functions. Thus, the programmer has complete control over the memory. C code’s compilation and execution time are fast in its compiled languages class. C uses a compiler (GNU C) to compile the code into machine code that the computer understands. Each file of the project (using makefile) will be compiled individually and then linked together for execution.
With this background, let us list some of the C projects that you can easily code and hone your C programming skills.
Top C Projects in 2022
Bank Management System
In this C programming project, you will simulate a simple banking system with credit and debit in bank accounts. Here, you will learn to create a saving account and expose basic operations such as credit, debit, probe balance, close account, etc., using simple C language code consisting of functions for each operation. File handling can store data and user information, and later you can use a simple DB for storage. This project will help you learn how to structure your code and then code each module separately.
Diary management System
In this project, the user will simulate operation on a personal diary such as creation or diary, writing a page, reading a page, searching a phrase on a given date, etc. Here, you can use simple text fields to save diary information. You can also build a security feature (password or paraphrase) on top of it. This project will help you practice functions, pointers, and searching /sorting algorithms.
Calendar
Here, you have to create a mini calendar using C. You can learn TCL/TK and add graphic content for a more advanced project. But for a beginner, a simple Command-line utility will be good enough. The project can offer various capabilities to the user, such as printing monthly, weekly, yearly calendars, printing a list of holidays, detecting leap year, and giving a list of extended blocks (a block is a contiguous set of bank holidays in a week).
Birthday List
In this project, you will create, edit, and display a birthday list of your near and dear ones. You can also provide a search option to find any friend’s birthday using his name. You can also display a list of birthdays coming in a month.
Unit converter
In this project, you will write code to convert any menstruation unit from one system to another. E.g., convert degree Fahrenheit to Celsius or convert kilometer to a mile. You can add as many systems as you want besides common systems such as temperature, distance, time, currency (using approximate rate), and mass.
Customer billing system
In this project, you will simulate a typical customer billing system for, let’s say, a coffee house. You will add a list of items in the menu as per their type (snacks, meal, drink, etc.), their respective price, any offered discount, payment mode. Initially, you can use only cash as a payment mode but later add credit cards and wallets. You can use files or DB tables to keep various records. Additionally, you can maintain customer records using customer name, amount due, the amount paid, and mobile number with purchased items.
Snake Game
In this project, you will implement a simple black and white version of the Snake game. The game would consist of a square window with blocks of ‘*’ characters filled randomly in it. The window has a snake object denoted by the ‘@’ character. The snake’s length grows as it eats ‘*.’ The game’s objective is to eat ‘*’ by going over it and ensuring the snake body does not touch any other ‘*’ block. You can use the GOTO function for movements of a snake and use ⬆, ➡, ⬇, ⬅ arrow keys to control the movement of the snake. You can save the gaming score of each player in its file using a player name as a file name.
Quiz game
This is a simple question-answer-based project wherein you will create a question bank for various topics such as politics, history, geography, current affairs, sports, movies, arts, etc. You will then ask questions to each contestant and give him a score based on his reply. You can further simplify the project by adding rules, bonus questions, fixed time to answer each question, lifelines, different difficulty levels, etc. You can use either DB or simple files to store data, including the player’s performance. It is a very simple project with error-free sources.
Cyber management
This is one of the advanced C projects. You have to maintain a user access system for a cyber cafe. The main objective of your project should be to manage user access to the computing resources. You can implement it as a client-server architecture wherein the server will maintain all computing resources, user sessions, timing, and access level (what websites can a user access, what websites they can’t). The client will request the server for time-bound access to a computing resource. So this project will have two separate code bases.
Cricket score display
Here, you will display a summary of a cricket match that has already been played. You can include the names of the teams, venue, umpires, list of players with their role runs made by batters of each team, wickets taken by bowlers of each team, final result, and man of the match.
Online voting system
In this project, you will create a software platform that securely enables any organization to conduct elections involving online voting (by registered members). It should provide security, convenience, and completeness to a voting event. You can take user input details of any future voting event such as a list of voters (name, userid, password for secure access), list of standing candidates, time of voting, brief biography of each standing candidate, etc. The program can run as a client-server model where the server can manage the election data, and the client can offer a custom menu to each user so that he can log in and vote.
Bus Reservation system
In this C project, you will simulate a bus reservation system. The system will ake input like bus type, the number of seats, the cost of each seat, total luggage load, individual bags allowed per ticket, etc. To create a reservation system wherein you will show a list of available seats and take reservation request and process it. You can add further capabilities such as canceling a reserved seat, refund, bulk booking, etc. It will also help find the availability of seats and find the booking information. You can use SQLite DB for data storage or resort to simple file handling.
Conclusion
Overall, working on c projects can be very rewarding. They can teach you a lot about how to code and can also be a lot of fun. However, they can also be frustrating at times. If you are having trouble with a c project, don’t be afraid to ask for help from others. With a little patience and perseverance, you will be able to complete your project and learn a lot in the process.
Source: GreatLearning Blog
