C is an imperative procedural language

C is an imperative procedural language:

It was designed to be compiled using a relatively straightforward compiler,

to provide low-level access to memory, to provide language constructs that map efficiently to machine instructions,

and to require minimal run-time support. Therefore,

 C was useful for many applications that had formerly been coded in assembly language,

for example in system programming.

Despite its low-level capabilities, the language was designed to encourage cross-platform programming.

A standards-compliant and portably written C program can be compiled for a very wide variety of computer platforms and

 operating systems with few changes to its source code. The language has become available on a very wide range of platforms,

 from embedded microcontrollers to supercomputers.