Structures
…. and other user-defined data types
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Basic Definitions
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What is a Structure?
It is a convenient construct for representing a group of logically related data items.
• Examples:
• Student name, roll number, and marks.
• Real part and complex part of a complex number.
Structures help in organizing complex data in a more meaningful way.
The individual structure elements are called members.
This is our first look at a user-defined data-type.
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Defining a Structure
The composition of a structure may be defined as:
struct á name of structure ñ {
á data-type ñ á member-name1ñ ;
á data-type ñ á member-name2ñ ;
…
á data-type ñ á member-namekñ ;
};
For example:
struct point {
float xcoord;
float ycoord;
};
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Example
A structure definition • struct is the required C keyword
• Do not forget the ; at the end of the structure defn
struct student {
char name[30];
int roll_number; • The individual members can be ordinary
int total_marks; variables, pointers, arrays, or other structures
char dob[10]; (any data-type)
};
• The member names within a particular structure
Defining structure variables: must be distinct from one another
• A member name can be the same as the name of a
struct student a1, a2, a3; variable defined outside of the structure
A new data-type
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Structure Definition versus Structure Variable Declaration
Structure Definition Structure Variable Declaration
struct point { struct point a, b, c;
float xcoord;
float ycoord;
}; • Here a, b, c are variables of the
type struct point
• No memory is allocated • Memory is allocated for a, b, c.
• Only defining a new data-type • Variable declaration is possible
after definition
Each structure type variable (e.g., a, b, c) has its own copy of each member
of that structure type
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Structure Variable Declaration can be clubbed with Definition
Separately: Together: Another way:
struct point { struct point { struct {
float xcoord; float xcoord; float xcoord;
float ycoord; float ycoord; float ycoord;
}; } a, b, c; } a, b, c;
struct point a, b, c; • The struct definition can • In this case we do not have
be reused elsewhere a name for the struct
• Like: • Hence we cannot reuse the
struct point p, q; struct definition
Each structure type variable (e.g., a, b, c) has its own copy of each member
of that structure type
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Type Definitions
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The typedef construct
The typedef construct can be used to define new (derived) data types in C.
typedef float kilometers_per_hour; // kilometers_per_hour is a new data type
// Note that no variable is allocated space here
kilometers_per_hour speed; // Here speed is a declared variable
speed = 40;
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Structures and typedef
Without typedef With typedef
struct complex typedef struct
{ {
float real; float real;
float imag; float imag;
}; } complex ;
struct complex a, b, c; complex a, b, c;
Here struct complex is like a Here complex is a new data
new data type. type
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Accessing members and using structures
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Accessing the members of a structure
• The members of a structure are accessed individually, as separate entities.
• A structure member can be accessed by writing Dot operator used to access
members of a structure, through a
ávariable-nameñ.ámember-nameñ structure-type variable
where variable refers to the name of a structure-type variable, and member refers to the
name of a member within the structure.
struct point {
float xcoord;
float ycoord;
} a, b;
a.xcoord = 2.5; a.ycoord = 3.2;
b.xcoord = b.ycoord = 0;
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Structure initialization
Structure variables may be initialized following similar rules of an array.
The values are provided within the second braces separated by commas
An example:
struct complex a={1.0,2.0}, b={-3.0,4.0};
a.real=1.0; a.img=2.0;
b.real=-3.0; b.img=4.0;
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Example: Addition of two complex numbers
#include <stdio.h>
main( )
{
struct complex
{ Structure declaration can be outside
main() as well. This is necessary if a
float real;
program has multiple functions using
float imag; a structure type.
} a, b, c;
scanf (“%f %f”, &a.real, &a.imag);
scanf (“%f %f”, &b.real, &b.imag);
c.real = a.real + b.real;
c.imag = a.imag + b.imag;
printf (“\n %f + %f j”, c.real, c.imag);
}
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Assignment of Structure Variables
main()
struct class {
{ int x;
int number; struct class student1 = {111, "Rao", 72.50};
char name[20]; struct class student2 = {222, "Reddy", 67.00};
float marks; struct class student3;
};
student3 = student2;
}
A structure variable can be directly assigned to another variable of the same type.
All the individual members get assigned / copied.
But, two structure variables can NOT be compared for equality or inequality
if (student1 == student2)…… this cannot be done
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An interesting observation
int a[5] = { 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 }; struct list {
int b[5]; int x[5];
};
b = a;
struct list a, b;
X This is not allowed a.x[0] = 10; a.x[1] = 20;
a.x[2] = 30; a.x[3] = 40;
a.x[4] = 50;
b = a;
This is allowed !!
Structures can be copied directly – even if they contain arrays !!
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Arrays of structures
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Arrays of Structures
Once a structure data-type has been defined, we can declare an array of structures.
struct class
{
int number;
char name[20];
float marks;
};
struct class student[50];
• The individual members can be accessed as:
student[ k ].marks marks of the kth student
student[ k ].name name of the kth student
student[ k ].name[ j ] jth character in the name of the kth student
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Example: Store a list of students (name, CGPA), compute
average CGPA
#include <stdio.h>
// compute average cgpa
struct student{ avg = 0.0;
float cgpa; for(i=0;i<5;i++)
char name[10]; avg += st[i].cgpa;
};
avg = avg / 5.0;
int main( ){ printf(“Avg cgpa:%f”,avg);
int i; float avg;
struct student st[5]; return 0;
printf(“Enter records of 5 students”); }
for(i=0;i<5;i++){
printf("\nEnter Cgpa:");
scanf("%f",&st[i].cgpa);
printf("\nEnter Name:");
scanf("%s”,st[i].name);
}
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Structures and functions
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Structures are passed by value to functions
#include <stdio.h> void print ( _COMPLEX a)
{
typedef struct { printf("(%f, %f) ", a.real, a.imag);
float real; }
float imag;
} _COMPLEX; main( )
{
void swap ( _COMPLEX a, _COMPLEX b) _COMPLEX x = { 4.0, 5.0 }, y = { 10.0, 15.0 };
{
_COMPLEX tmp; print(x); print(y); printf(“\n”);
swap(x, y);
tmp = a; a = b; b = tmp; print(x); print(y); printf(“\n”);
} }
Program output: No swapping takes place actually,
(4.000000, 5.000000) (10.000000, 15.000000) similar to what we saw for integers,
(4.000000, 5.000000) (10.000000, 15.000000) floats, etc.
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Structures can be returned from functions
#include <stdio.h> main( )
{
typedef struct { _COMPLEX x = { 4.0, 5.0 }, y = { 10.0, 15.0 };
float real; _COMPLEX z;
float imag;
} _COMPLEX; z = add(x, y);
printf(“ %f, %f \n”, z.real, z.imag);
}
_COMPLEX add ( _COMPLEX a, _COMPLEX b)
{
_COMPLEX tmp;
Program output:
tmp.real = a.real + b.real; 14.000000, 20.000000
tmp.imag = a.imag + b.imag;
return tmp;
}
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Pointers to Structures
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Pointers and Structures
struct class
{
int roll;
char name[20];
float marks;
};
struct class* ptr;
Once ptr points to a structure variable, the members can be accessed as:
ptr –> roll;
ptr –> name;
ptr –> marks; Arrow operator used to access
members of a structure, through a
• The symbol “–>” is called the arrow operator. structure-type pointer.
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Use of pointers to structures
#include <stdio.h>
struct complex {
float real;
float imag; void add (struct complex* x, struct complex* y,
}; struct complex* t)
{
main( ) t->re = x->real + y->real;
{ t->im = x->imag + y->imag;
struct complex a, b, c;
}
scanf ( “%f %f”, &a.real, &a.imag );
scanf ( “%f %f”, &b.real, &b.imag );
add( &a, &b, &c ) ;
printf ( “\n %f %f”, c,real, c.imag );
}
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A Warning
When using structure pointers, we should take care of operator precedence.
• Member operator “.” has higher precedence than “*”
ptr –> roll and (*ptr).roll mean the same thing.
*ptr.roll will lead to error.
• The operator “–>” enjoys the highest priority among operators.
++ptr –> roll will increment roll, not ptr.
(++ptr) –> roll will increment the pointer (to the next structure in an array) and
access roll in the next structure.
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Practice problems
1. Extend the complex number program to include functions for addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division
2. Define a structure for representing a point in two-dimensional Cartesian co-
ordinate system. Using this structure for a point
i. Write a function to return the distance between two given points
ii. Write a function to return the middle point of the line segment joining
two given points
iii. Write a function to compute the area of a triangle formed by three given
points
iv. Write a main function and call the functions from there after reading in
appropriate inputs (the points) from the keyboard
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3. Define a structure STUDENT to store the following data for a student: name
(null-terminated string of length at most 20 chars), roll no. (integer), CGPA
(float). Then
1. In main, declare an array of 100 STUDENT structures. Read an integer n
and then read in the details of n students in this array
2. Write a function to search the array for a student by name. Returns the
structure for the student if found. If not found, return a special structure
with the name field set to empty string (just a ‘\0’)
3. Write a function to search the array for a student by roll no.
4. Write a function to print the details of all students with CGPA > x for a
given x
5. Call the functions from the main after reading in name/roll no/CGPA to
search
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Unions
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Union
• In a struct, space is allocated as the sum of the space required by its members.
• In a union, space is allocated as the union of the space required by its members.
• We use union when we want only one of the members, but don’t know which one.
Suppose we wish to store an ID for each employee.
• Some employees may provide passport ID (8 characters)
• Other employees may provide Aadhar Card Number (12 digit integer)
• If we use a structure with both these fields, we will waste space
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Union example
main ( )
typedef union { {
char passport[9]; struct employee x;
int aadhar; … read employee name and employee code here …
} id ; printf(“What is your ID type: \n 1. Passport, 2. Aadhar\n”);
scanf(“%d”, x.idtype);
struct employee {
char empname[20]; if (idtype == 1) {
int empcode; printf(“ Enter passport number: “);
int idtype; scanf( “%8s”, x.id.passport ) ;
id idnumber; }
}; if (idtype == 2) {
printf(“Enter Aadhar card number:”);
scanf(“%12d”, x.id.aadhar );
}
}
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