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GNDU Question Paper-2021

Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) 1

st

Sem.

(Batch 2021-24)

INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING-C

1. Write short notes on the following:

(a) Character set

(b) Constant

(c)Symbolic constant

(d) Reserve words

(e)Identifiers.

2. Explain the following types of operators:

(a)Relational

4. Write a program to find ith smallest and jh largest number in a list of n numbers.

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SECTION-C

5. (a) Define recursion. What are the conditions for implementing recursion?

(b) Write a recursive function to generate ith term of Fibonacci series.

6. Write a program to multiply two matrices and store the result in third matrix.

SECTION-D

(e) Self-referencing structure.

8. Define pointer. How pointer to functions is used? Explain giving example.

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Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) 1

st

Sem.

(Batch 2021-24)

INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING-C

1. Write short notes on the following:

(a) Character set

(b) Constant

(c)Symbolic constant

(d) Reserve words

(e)Identifiers.

Ans: (a) Character Set

Imagine a big box filled with different letters, numbers, and symbols. This box is called the

󹴡󹴵󹴣󹴤 What is a Character Set?

A character set is the set of characters that a programming language can recognize and use

to form instructions, variables, expressions, and more.

In simpler terms, it includes:

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These characters are the raw materials for any program. Just like how letters make up

words in English, characters make up statements in a programming language.

󷃆󹹾󹹿󹺀 Example in C:

󹳴󹳵󹳶󹳷 Why is Character Set Important?

Without a character set, the compiler wouldn't know what we are trying to type. It's like

trying to read a book in a language that doesn't have any alphabet!

Once a constant is defined, its value remains the same, unlike variables which can change.

󼨐󼨑󼨒 Think of It Like This:

If you define:

const int daysInWeek = 7;

This means that daysInWeek will always be 7. You cannot change it to 6 or 8 later in the

program.

󼪺󼪻 Types of Constants:

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(c) Symbolic Constant

Now let’s imagine that Arjun writes poems and uses symbols like 󷇱󷇳󷇲 for the sun and 󷇧󷇨󷇩 for

the moon. These symbols represent something else. In programming, a symbolic constant is

a similar idea.

󹴡󹴵󹴣󹴤 What is a Symbolic Constant?

A symbolic constant is a name that symbolizes a constant value. Instead of writing the actual

value again and again, we use a name that stands for it.

So,

area = PI * r * r;

becomes:

area = 3.14159 * r * r;

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󹳴󹳵󹳶󹳷 Advantages of Symbolic Constants:

Symbolic constants are like nicknames for values!

(d) Reserved Words

Some reserved words include:

int, return, if, else, void, for, while, switch, break, continue, const

You cannot do this:

int if = 10; // 󽅂 Invalid

Because if is a reserved word used for decision-making in C.

󹳴󹳵󹳶󹳷 Why are They Important?

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(e) Identifiers

After spending months learning programming, Arjun finally created his first game. He used

names like score, playerName, and lives in his code. His mentor told him, “These names are

called identifiers — they are how your program recognizes its own variables.”

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Identifiers are like labels you stick on boxes to know what’s inside. Without them, your

program would be full of confusion.

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}

󼨐󼨑󼨒 Explanation:

It’s like saying:

“Start from 1, go until 10, and increase by 1 each time.”

Use for loop when you know in advance how many times you want to repeat something.

󷃆󷃋 While Loop: The Uncertain Adventurer

Now Aryan is on a quest, but he doesn’t know how many steps it will take to reach his goal.

He will keep walking until he finds the treasure.

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Use while loop when you don’t know how many times you’ll need to repeat — but you

// Code to be executed

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Loops in C are like your daily routines. Some are fixed (like brushing your teeth every

morning – for loop), some depend on conditions (like watching TV until you get bored –

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Priya smiled, “Oh! That’s like finding the student who came i-th in class if we arrange marks

if i < 1 or i > n or j < 1 or j > n:

return "Invalid i or j! They must be within the range of the list length."

# Sort the list in ascending order

sorted_list = sorted(numbers)

ith_smallest = sorted_list[i - 1] # Lists are 0-indexed

jth_largest = sorted_list[-j] # -1 is last, -2 is second last, etc.

return ith_smallest, jth_largest

ith_smallest, jth_largest = find_ith_smallest_and_jth_largest(numbers, i, j)

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print(f"The {i}th smallest number is: {ith_smallest}")

print(f"The {j}th largest number is: {jth_largest}")

Let’s Understand the Code Step-by-Step

number of elements in the list.

order.

11, 15, 20].

numbers = [15, 3, 9, 7, 20, 11]

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i = 2

j = 3

So, the output will be:

The 2th smallest number is: 7

The 3th largest number is: 11

Why Sorting Works? (A Quick Peek into Logic)

When we sort the list:

The judges were impressed not just with her accuracy, but her simplicity.

That’s the beauty of clean logic. The simpler your solution, the more efficient it usually is.

Final Thoughts

This small program teaches us a big lesson:

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Sometimes, sorting the mess first helps us find what we’re really looking for — both in

numbers and in life!

So the next time someone hands you a jumbled list of numbers and asks for the ith smallest

or jth largest — smile, sort, and solve!

SECTION-C

5. (a) Define recursion. What are the conditions for implementing recursion?

Ans: (a). 󷉃󷉄 A Fresh Start: Grandma's Ladder

placed on the top shelf. But the ladder was magical — it could only be climbed one step at a

time, and Rohan had to call himself again at each step to keep going higher.

Each time he placed his foot on a new step, he whispered, "Rohan, climb the next step," and

of the original problem. It continues to do this until it reaches a situation where it no longer

needs to call itself — this is known as the base condition.

So, just like Rohan climbed each step with the help of a new “version” of himself, in

recursion, the same function solves a part of the problem and calls itself again with a

smaller input — until the problem becomes small enough to solve directly.

Recursion is a programming technique in which a function calls itself directly or indirectly in

order to solve a problem by breaking it down into smaller sub-problems of the same type.

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the process of opening the dolls is like recursive function calls. Once the smallest one is

reached, we start putting them back in — this is the process of returning from the recursive

This is the most crucial part of recursion. A base case tells the function when to stop calling

itself.

󹻂 Think of it like a full stop in a sentence — without it, the sentence (or function) goes on

forever.

󹻂 Example: In a function to calculate factorial, when n == 1, we stop and return 1.

def factorial(n):

if n == 1: # Base case

return 1

return n * factorial(n - 1)

If we forget the base case, the function will keep calling itself endlessly, causing a stack

overflow — the program will crash.

2. Recursive Case (Progress Towards the Base):

󹲙󹲚󹲛󹲜󹲝󹲞 Example: Sum of Natural Numbers

Let’s take a simple recursive function that calculates the sum of natural numbers up to n:

def sum_natural(n):

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if n == 1: # Base case

return 1

else:

return n + sum_natural(n - 1) # Recursive case

If you call sum_natural(5), it calculates:

5 + sum_natural(4)

4 + sum_natural(3)

3 + sum_natural(2)

󼨻󼨼 Key Points to Remember:

Recursion might sound magical or confusing at first — like Rohan summoning new versions

of himself — but at its heart, it's a simple and powerful tool that helps solve complex

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cout << endl;

}

return 0;

}

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Programming this is just about carefully applying nested loops and understanding the

position of elements.

(d) Structure and pointers

(e) Self-referencing structure.

Ans: 󷇴󷇵󷇶󷇷󷇸󷇹 A Journey Through the C Language Village

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Similarly, in C, when the basic data types are not enough to represent complex data (like a

student’s name, roll number, and marks), you create your own data type. That is called a

󹳴󹳵󹳶󹳷 Definition:

A User-Defined Data Type (UDDT) allows a programmer to create their own data types

For example, to store information about a book, we need:

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float price;

int pages;

󹴷󹴺󹴸󹴹󹴻󹴼󹴽󹴾󹴿󹵀󹵁󹵂 Usage Example:

struct Book b1;

strcpy(b1.title, "C Programming");

b1.price = 299.99;

b1.pages = 500;

Now, the entire book information is stored inside one variable b1.

󷃆󼽢 Advantages of Structure:

In a neighboring hut, lived Unio, who was very smart and resource-conscious. He used only

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d.i = 10; // stores int

d.f = 220.5; // now float value replaces int

strcpy(d.str, "Hi");// now string replaces float

At any time, only one of these can be accessed correctly, because all share the same

󹹋󹹌 4. What are Structures and Pointers?

Now comes Pointer Singh, the village’s navigator. He didn’t carry the data himself, but he

󹳴󹳵󹳶󹳷 Definition:

A pointer is a variable that stores the address of another variable. When used with

structures, pointers allow us to:

󼪺󼪻 Structure with Pointer Syntax:

struct Student {

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struct Student s1 = {"Ravi", 101};

struct Student *ptr = &s1;

󹴷󹴺󹴸󹴹󹴻󹴼󹴽󹴾󹴿󹵀󹵁󹵂 Accessing Structure Members via Pointers:

printf("%s", ptr->name);

printf("%d", ptr->roll);

Use -> (arrow operator) with structure pointers to access members.

󷃆󹸃󹸄 5. What is a Self-Referencing Structure?

Here comes the mysterious and powerful Selfy, who was always connected to others like

links between data items.

󹴷󹴺󹴸󹴹󹴻󹴼󹴽󹴾󹴿󹵀󹵁󹵂 Usage Example: Creating a Simple Node:

struct Node *head;

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head = (struct Node *)malloc(sizeof(struct Node));

head->data = 5;

head->next = NULL;

Now, we can create another node and link it to head:

struct Node *second = (struct Node *)malloc(sizeof(struct Node));

second->data = 10;

head->next = second;

This chain of nodes is the basis of Linked Lists.

Let’s revisit the story of our five friends.

contributed:

The professor was amazed. “You've created the backbone of dynamic and efficient

programming,” he said. The five were honored as Data Warriors of Codeville.

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ready!

Ans: 󺠫󺠬󺠭󺠮󺠯 A Doorway to Memory: Understanding Pointers and Pointers to Functions

Imagine you're standing in a huge hotel with thousands of rooms. Each room has a number

written on its door, and inside each room, there's a guest staying—a value.

Now, suppose you're a staff member of this hotel and your job is to deliver messages to the

rooms. But here's the catch—you are not given the guest names directly; you are only given

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󹳴󹳵󹳶󹳷 What is a Pointer?

In simple terms:

A pointer is a variable that stores the memory address of another variable.

If you have a variable like:

int num = 10;

Then, you can create a pointer that stores the address of num:

int *ptr = &num;

Here:

󼨐󼨑󼨒 Real-Life Analogy (Short Story)

a locker. Aman does not know what the book says—he only has the key to the locker.

Similarly, in C programming, a variable is like the book, the memory is like the locker, and

the pointer is the key that opens the locker to access the book.

Without the key (pointer), you can't read the book (access the value).

󷗭󷗨󷗩󷗪󷗫󷗬 Why Use Pointers?

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󼩎󼩏󼩐󼩑󼩒󼩓󼩔 What is a Pointer to a Function?

Just like you can store the address of a variable in a pointer, you can also store the address

of a function in a pointer.

This is called a pointer to a function.

This is where function pointers shine.

Assign the address of the function:

funcPtr = &add; // Or simply funcPtr = add;

So, this will return 8.

food: Burger, Pizza, or Pasta. Depending on the customer’s choice, the chef prepares a

different dish.