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Structures

Structs: Defining and using custom data types to group related variables.

Structures (or structs) in C are used to define custom data types that group related variables. Each variable within a structure is called a member, and the members can be of different types. Structures are useful for organizing complex data into a single unit, making it easier to manage and manipulate related data.

Defining and Using Structures

Here's a step-by-step explanation with an example:

#include <stdio.h>

// Define a structure named 'Person'
struct Person {
    char name[50];
    int age;
    float height;
};
            

In this example, the Person structure has three members:

• name: a character array to hold the person's name.
• age: an integer to hold the person's age.
• height: a float to hold the person's height.

int main() {
    // Declare and initialize a structure variable
    struct Person person1 = {"Alice", 30, 5.5};

    // Access and print the members of the structure
    printf("Name: %s\\n", person1.name);
    printf("Age: %d\\n", person1.age);
    printf("Height: %.2f\\n", person1.height);

    return 0;
}
            

Here, person1 is a variable of type struct Person. It is initialized with values for name, age, and height. The members of the structure are accessed using the dot operator (.).

int main() {
    // Declare and initialize a structure variable
    struct Person person1 = {"Bob", 25, 5.8};
    
    // Declare a pointer to a structure
    struct Person *ptr = &person1;

    // Access and modify the members using the pointer
    printf("Name: %s\\n", ptr->name);
    printf("Age: %d\\n", ptr->age);
    printf("Height: %.2f\\n", ptr->height);

    // Modify the structure members using the pointer
    ptr->age = 26;
    printf("Updated Age: %d\\n", ptr->age);

    return 0;
}
            

In this example:

• ptr is a pointer to struct Person and is initialized to point to person1.
• The arrow operator (>) is used to access and modify the members of the structure through the pointer.