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Structures

Structure declarations are of the form:

[attributes] struct [struct_name]

{

type element_name;

type element_name;

type element_name;

} [var_name, var_name] ;

where the optional var_names are variables declared to be of this structure type, and the optional struct_name is a name for this structure type which may be used in subsequent variable declarations of the form:

[attributes] struct struct_name var_name;

var_name refers to the contents of the entire structure. Hence a structure may be passed to a function, and structure assignments are allowed:

var_name = var_name;

The variables should have the same number and type of elements, but don't have to be declared as identical structure types.

An element within a structure is referred to using:

var_name.element_name

A pointer to a structure is declared using:

struct struct_name* var_name;

If the address of a structure of type struct_name is then assigned to var_name, then the contents of this entire structure is referred to using:

*var_name

However, an element within this structure is referred to using:

var_name->element_name

Arrays and structures may be nested to several levels.

Last updated 10th October 2002, Peter Dziwior.