Why is c language said to be portable?

Answer 1

Well, C is not platform dependent. You can compile C into source code on a Windows, Mac, Unix or any other operating system as long as you are using that type of computer. You could write code that can be compiled on almost any operating system. But the programs you write may or may not be able to move from system to system based on whether or not you use tools specific to that operating system. Java is not actually platform independent either because you need JVM to run it. It's just that most computers come with JVM installed.

Both of the above are wrong. The C language specification itself is platform-dependent, as there are numerous places where ambiguities (both intentional and unintentional) cause different behavior according to how both the platform AND the C-compiler writer chose to behave. Thus, while it is possible to write a C program which is highly-portable, that program is still dependent on the exact implementation of the C compiler and OS it runs on. So, the behavior of a C program depends on the platform.

The Java Language is platform INDEPENDENT, since it does NOT have the implementation ambiguities of C, and has a completely-standardized interface to all platforms (the JVM spec). Naturally, the JVM program is plaform dependent, as creating it to conform to the Java VM specification requires knowledge of the peculiarities of the platform.

Answer 2

C is said to be a portable language mainly because you can compile and run it on different platforms withe little or no modification to the source code. The only thing needed is a is a compiler.