Computer Programming

Pratik Narang
BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus
 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

Structures
Why another data structure?
• We have studied Arrays
• All elements are of the same type
• Structure
• Individual elements can differ in type
• A single structure may contain
• integer
• Float
• char
• Pointers
• Arrays
• Other structures
Defining a structure
struct tag {
member 1;
member 2;
…
};

[storage-class] struct tag var1;

Examples…
static struct account c = {9, ‘R’, “John”, 33.3, 4, 5, 19};
Processing a struct
• variable.member
• Members are processed individually.
• The . operator is a member of the highest
precedence group.

• What about:
• ++variable.member
• &variable.member

• Examples…
typedef
• Allows users to define new data-types equivalent to
existing ones.
• typedef type new-type
• Examples…
Size of a structure
struct test_struct {
char a[3];
a= 3
short int b; b= 2
int c; c= 4
d= 3
char d[3]; 16

} test;
printf("a= %lu\n", sizeof(test.a));
printf("b= %lu\n", sizeof(test.b));
printf("c= %lu\n", sizeof(test.c));
printf("d= %lu\n", sizeof(test.d));
printf("%lu\n", sizeof(test));
Examples
Passing structs to functions
• Entire structure or individual members can be
passed as function arguments and can be returned
from function calls

• We can pass the entire structure by value or by

reference (passing a pointer to the structure)

• Passing large structures by value -> copies involved

-> waste of memory and compute
Example
typedef struct {
int numer;
int denom;
} FRAC;

typedef struct {
int whole;
FRAC f;
} MIXED;

FRAC addFrac(FRAC f1, FRAC f2);

MIXED addMixed(FRAC f, MIXED m);
 Example
struct dice { int face ;};
typedef struct dice Dice;
void passByValue(Dice c) { c.face = 5; }

int main(void) {
Dice c ;
c.face = 1;
printf("c.face before = %d\n", c.face);
passByValue(c);
printf("c.face after = %d\n",c.face);
}
Array of structures
typedef struct {
char[15] idno;
char[50] name;
char gender;
int age;
float cgpa;
} Student;

Student arr[N];
for (i = 0; i < N; ++i)
{
scanf("%[^,]", arr[i].idno);
getchar(); // dissipating the field separ. ,
scanf("%[^,]", arr[i].name);
getchar(); // dissipating the field separ. ,
arr[i].gender = getchar();
getchar(); // dissipating the field separ. ,
scanf("%d", &arr[i].age);
getchar(); // dissipating the field separ. ,
scanf("%f", &arr[i].cgpa);
getchar(); // dissipating the \n
}
Data:

2018A1PS0056P,Anmol,M,18,6.00
2016B2A70345P,Sarita,F,20,8.78
Pointer to a structure
typedef struct {
char[15] idno;
char[50] name;
char gender;
int age;
float cgpa;
} Student;

Student* s1;
 Example
struct dice { int face ;};
typedef struct dice Dice;
void passByReference(Dice *c) {c->face = 4;}

int main(void) {
Dice c ;
c.face = 1;
Dice *cptr = &c ; // ptr to c
printf("c.face before = %d\n", c.face);
printf("cptr before = %d\n",cptr->face);
passByReference(cptr);
printf("c.face after = %d\n",c.face); }
 Structure on heap memory
Dice* allocateMem() {
Dice* x = malloc(sizeof(Dice));
x->face = 5;
printf(“x->face: %d\n",x->face);
return x; }

int main() {
Dice* s = allocateMem();
printf(“s->face: %d\n", s->face);
free(s);
return 0; }