Editing The C Programming Language (section)

{{Short description|Book by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie}}

{{about|the textbook|the programming language covered in the book|C (programming language)}}

{{Infobox book
| name          = The C Programming Language 
| image         = The C Programming Language, First Edition Cover.svg
| caption       = Cover of the first edition.
| author        = [[Brian Kernighan]]<br>[[Dennis Ritchie]]
| illustrator   = 
| cover_artist  = 
| language      = English
| subject       = [[C programming language]]
| genre         = 
| publisher     = [[Prentice Hall]]
| pub_date      = 1978 (1st Edition) <br> 1988 (2nd Edition)
| isbn          = 9780131101630
| dewey         = 
| congress      = 
| oclc          = 
}}

'''''The C Programming Language''''' (sometimes termed '''''K&R''''', after its authors' initials) is a [[computer programming]] book written by [[Brian Kernighan]] and [[Dennis Ritchie]], the latter of whom originally designed and implemented the [[C programming language]], as well as co-designed the [[Unix]] [[operating system]] with which development of the language was closely intertwined.  The book was central to the development and popularization of C and is still widely read and used today{{when|date=April 2025}}.  Because the book was co-authored by the original language designer, and because the first edition of the book served for many years as the ''[[de facto]]'' standard for the language, the book was regarded by many to be the authoritative reference on C.<ref name="ward198308" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Mfe4sAMFUYC|title=C in a Nutshell|last1=Prinz|first1=Peter|last2=Crawford|first2=Tony|date=2005-12-16|publisher=O'Reilly Media, Inc.|isbn=9780596550714|page=3|language=en}}</ref>