Accurate atomic data are essential for opacity calculations and for abundance analyses of the Sun and other stars. The aim of this work is to provide accurate and extensive results of energy levels and transition data for C I-IV. The Multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock and relativistic configuration interaction methods were used in this work. To improve the quality of the wavefunctions and reduce the relative differences between length and velocity forms for transition data involving high Rydberg states, alternative computational strategies were employed by imposing restrictions on the electron substitutions when constructing the orbital basis for each atom and ion. Transition data, for example, weighted oscillator strengths and transition probabilities, are given for radiative electric dipole (E1) transitions involving levels up to 1s(2)2s(2)2p6s for C I, up to 1s(2)2s(2)7f for C It, up to 1s(2)2s7f for C III, and up to 1s(2)8g for C IV. Using the difference between the transition rates in length and velocity gauges as an internal validation, the average uncertainties of all presented E1 transitions are estimated to be 8.05 per cent, 7.20 percent, 1.77 percent, and 0.28 percent, respectively, for C I-IV. Extensive comparisons with available experimental and theoretical results are performed and good agreement is observed for most of the transitions. In addition, the C I data were employed in a re-analysis of the solar carbon abundance. The new transition data give a line-by-line dispersion similar to the one obtained when using transition data that are typically used in stellar spectroscopic applications today.