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Official PYQ · 2012Q3Programming in CMCQ1 mark

GATE CS 2012 Q3 — Programming in C

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What will be the output of the following C program segment?

 char inChar = 'A';
    switch ( inChar ) {
       case 'A' : printf ("Choice A \ n");
       case 'B' :
       case 'C' : printf ("Choice B");
       case 'D' :
       case 'E' :
       default : printf ("No Choice"); 
    }

Marks were awarded to all candidates for this question. It is not scored as a normal quiz.

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Marks to all

This question was awarded Marks to All (MTA) by GATE due to typographical errors in the options and code. Below is the detailed step-by-step execution and explanation of the behavior.

1. Concept of Switch-Case Fall-Through

In C, the switch statement executes the matching case label. If a case block does not end with a break statement, the execution continues ("falls through") into the subsequent cases and the default block, regardless of whether those case labels match the switch expression.

2. Step-by-Step Execution

  • Initialization: char inChar = 'A';
  • The switch (inChar) matches case 'A'.
  • It executes:
    printf ("Choice A \ n");
    (Assuming \ n is a typo for the newline character \n, this prints Choice A followed by a newline).
  • Since there is no break statement at the end of case 'A', the control falls through to case 'B' and then case 'C'.
  • It executes:
    printf ("Choice B");
  • Again, there is no break statement, so control falls through case 'D', case 'E', and finally the default block.
  • It executes:
    printf ("No Choice");

3. Expected Output vs Options

Combining the outputs sequentially, the exact output of the program is:

Choice A 
Choice BNo Choice

Why Marks to All (MTA) was given:

  1. There is no space printed between Choice B and No Choice in the actual execution, but Option C includes a space: Choice B No Choice.
  2. The code contains a space inside the escape sequence (\ n instead of \n), which is syntactically a literal backslash and space in many contexts rather than a newline.

Because of these discrepancies, none of the options are technically correct, and full marks were awarded to all candidates.

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