# cs50/libcs50

This is CS50's Library for C.

Repository: https://github.com/cs50/libcs50
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/libcs50
Homepage: https://cs50.readthedocs.io/libraries/cs50/c/
Language: C
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: c
Last push: 2026-01-22T07:16:13+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 51/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 63, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5162, "days_push": 223, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2161, forks 902 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:20.968368+00:00)

## What it is
CS50's C library providing simplified input functions like get_int, get_string, and get_float for students learning C. It is the companion library for Harvard's CS50 course, installable via packages or from source.

## Use cases
- get user input in C without dealing with scanf pitfalls
- teach introductory C programming to students
- read strings, ints, floats, doubles, and longs with simple prompts
- set up the CS50 course toolchain on Ubuntu or Fedora
- simplify C exercises for beginners

## When to choose
- you are following Harvard's CS50 course or its problem sets
- you want beginner-friendly, validated input functions in C
- you are teaching introductory C and want to hide scanf complexity

## When to avoid
- you are building production C software
- you need full control over input parsing and error handling
- you want a general-purpose utility library beyond input helpers

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: sdk, developer-tools
- domain: education, developer-tools, programming-languages
- platform: c
- tags: cs50, c-library, input-helpers, teaching, beginner-friendly, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- cs50/libcs50 (main) score 51

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:20.968368+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:50:15.206357+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/cs50/libcs50 (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:20.968368+00:00, sha 2608a5b9e79b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.