Defining a Structure
To define a structure, you must use the struct statement. The struct
statement defines a new data type, with more than one member. The
format of the struct statement is as follows −
struct [structure tag] {
member definition;
member definition;
...
member definition;
} [one or more structure variables];
The structure tag is optional and each member definition is a normal
variable definition, such as int i; or float f; or any other valid variable
definition. At the end of the structure's definition, before the final
semicolon, you can specify one or more structure variables but it is
optional. Here is the way you would declare the Book structure −
struct Books {
char title[50];
char author[50];
char subject[100];
int book_id;
} book;
Accessing Structure Members
To access any member of a structure, we use the member access
operator (.). The member access operator is coded as a period between
the structure variable name and the structure member that we wish to
access. You would use the keyword struct to define variables of structure
type. The following example shows how to use a structure in a program −
Live Demo
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
struct Books {
char title[50];
char author[50];
char subject[100];
int book_id;
};
int main( ) {
struct Books Book1; /* Declare Book1 of type Book */
struct Books Book2; /* Declare Book2 of type Book */
/* book 1 specification */
strcpy( Book1.title, "C Programming");
strcpy( Book1.author, "Nuha Ali");
strcpy( Book1.subject, "C Programming Tutorial");
Book1.book_id = 6495407;
/* book 2 specification */
strcpy( Book2.title, "Telecom Billing");
strcpy( Book2.author, "Zara Ali");
strcpy( Book2.subject, "Telecom Billing Tutorial");
Book2.book_id = 6495700;
/* print Book1 info */
printf( "Book 1 title : %s\n", Book1.title);
printf( "Book 1 author : %s\n", Book1.author);
printf( "Book 1 subject : %s\n", Book1.subject);
printf( "Book 1 book_id : %d\n", Book1.book_id);
/* print Book2 info */
printf( "Book 2 title : %s\n", Book2.title);
printf( "Book 2 author : %s\n", Book2.author);
printf( "Book 2 subject : %s\n", Book2.subject);
printf( "Book 2 book_id : %d\n", Book2.book_id);
return 0;
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following
result −
Book 1 title : C Programming
Book 1 author : Nuha Ali
Book 1 subject : C Programming Tutorial
Book 1 book_id : 6495407
Book 2 title : Telecom Billing
Book 2 author : Zara Ali
Book 2 subject : Telecom Billing Tutorial
Book 2 book_id : 6495700