C language prototype creation - c

Question

I have this block of code. I have to move the given function display_name() into another .c file, compile it, and find the error that was caused due to the migration of the function and correct it by creating a header file with a prototype. How can I do it?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
char student[]="Rasmus Lerdorf";
void display_name()
{
printf("Student Name : %s",student);
}
int main()
{
display_name();
}
these are the changes i made but again i still get an error in the main.cpp. it doesnt allow me to include the displayname.h file.
displayname.h
void display_name(void);
displayname.cpp
#include <stdio.h>
#include "displayname.h"
char student[] = "Rasmus Lerdorf";
void display_name()
{
printf("Student Name : %s", student);
}
main.cpp
#include <stdio.h>
#include "displayname.h"
int main()
{
display_name();
}
errors are:
3 IntelliSense: identifier "display_name" is undefined c:\Users\konstantinos\Desktop\main\main.cpp 7 2 Cproject
2 IntelliSense: cannot open source file "displayname.h" c:\Users\konstantinos\Desktop\main\main.cpp 2 1 Cproject
Error 1 error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'displayname.h': No such file or directory c:\users\konstantinos\desktop\main\main.cpp 2 1 Cproject

Answer 1

Prototype functions work like this: for each set of functions that you write (except main) you need a definition and an implementation. Definitions are usually stored in header files (extension .h) whereas implementations are stored in source files (extension .c).
Here is an example of how you could arrange your code to solve your problem.
Definition: display.h
// This file contains the definitions of the functions which you want to call from another file
void display_name(void);
Implementation: display.c
#include "display.h"
#include <stdio.h>
static char student[]="Rasmus Lerdorf";
void display_name()
{ printf("Student Name : %s",student);
}
With both the definition defined and the desired implemented, now you can call the function from your main source file.
Implementation: main.c
#include "display.h"
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
display_name();
}
This is how you link together a prototype of a function and the implementation of a function. You can expand this by adding more prototypes to display.h, implementing those prototyped functions in display.c, and then calling them throughout your code.
To build, both of these .c files must be included in your build phase. If you build from the command line, you need to do something like this (I'm assuming that your compiler is gcc):
cc display.c main.c -o program
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Your header file, let's call it displayname.h should contain the declaration:
void display_name(void);
It's usually also best to create an include guard, which avoids causing problems if a header is included more than once:
#ifndef DISPLAYNAME_H
#define DISPLAYNAME_H
void display_name(void);
#endif /* DISPLAYNAME_H */
Then, in your displayname.c, you would include that header plus any others needed by the function, and define your constant and the function:
#include <stdio.h>
#include "displayname.h"
char student[]="Rasmus Lerdorf";
void display_name()
{
printf("Student Name : %s",student);
}
And in your main.c, you would also include that header:
#include "displayname.h"
int main()
{
display_name();
return 0;
}
I don't know what compiler you are using, but if you're on a Unix-like system (Linux, Mac OS X, or something like msys or Cygwin under Windows), you would compile and link them as follows (you can replace cc with your specific compiler, such as gcc or clang, though on most systems cc should exist and point to the default compiler for that system):
cc -c -o displayname.o displayname.c
cc -c -o main.o main.c
cc -o myprogram main.o displayname.o
You could also abbreviate this as:
cc -o myprogram main.c displayname.c
I also recommend, when you are learning, to use the -Wall -Wextra -Werror flags, to give you as many warnings as possible, and not allow compilation to proceed if there are any warnings. To make this more convenient, so you don't have to type the whole command every time, you can define a simple Makefile; the following uses GNU make syntax, if you don't have GNU make let me know and I'll edit it to use a more portable syntax:
CFLAGS=-Wall -Wextra -Werror
myprogram: main.o displayname.o
cc -o $# $^
%.o: %.c
cc -c $(CFLAGS) -o $# $<
main.o: displayname.h
displayname.o: displayname.h
If you have this set up, you can just type make and it will recompile everything that it needs to.
edit: I see now from your comments that you are using Visual Studio, so the above tips on how to compile and link using cc and make are not relevant to you. It has been too long since I have used Visual Studio to walk you through that myself, but Microsoft has a reasonable walkthrough of how to create and build a project that you can follow. The tutorial is for C++, but it should work similarly for C, just keep in mind that files should be named .c if they are written in C, and only .cpp if they are written in C++.

Answer 3

i did what you said! i created the 3 specific files displayname.h for the prototype , displayname.cpp in which the function display_name() stays and main.cpp in which i call the function display_name(). the problem again is that when i include the file displayname.h in the displayname.cpp it works fine, but when i include it in the main.cpp i have an underline error in the include. what is wrong?