CS1101: Foundations of Programming

Structures

Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Patna

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 Structure
• A structure is a collection of one or more variables, possibly of different types,
grouped together under a single name for convenient handling
• This is very much useful when the data items are of different types
• Arrays can store similar items only
• Better readability even when the constituent data items are of the same type
• Structures help to organize complicated data
• It permits a group of related variables to be treated as a unit instead of as
separate entities.
• Example:
• Student record: name, roll, height, marks, etc.
• Complex number: real, imaginary

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 Defining a structure
The composition of structure is as follows: Example:
struct <name of structure> { struct student {
<data type> <member name1>; char name[30];
<data type> <member name2>; char roll[10];
… float weight;
<data type> <member namek>; int marks;
}; };
struct student x, y;
Example:
struct complex {
float real;
float imaginary;
};
struct complex a, b;

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 Structure
• struct is the required C keyword
• Do not forget ; at the end of the structure definition
• The individual members can be ordinary variables, pointers, arrays, or other
structures
• The member names within a particular structure must be distinct from one
another
• A member name can be the same as the name of a variable defined outside
the structure

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 Structure definition & Structure variable declaration
Structure definition:
struct point { Structure variable declaration:
float xcoord; struct point a, b, c;
float ycoord;
}; Here a, b, c are variables of the type struct point.
Memory is allocated for a, b, c.
No memory is allocated. Variable declaration is allowed after definition.
Only defining a new data type.

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 Structure variable declaration
Together:
Separately:
struct point {
struct point {
float xcoord;
float xcoord;
float ycoord;
float ycoord;
} a, b, c;
};
The struct definition can be reused later like
struct point a, b, c;
struct point x, y;
Another way:
struct {
float xcoord;
float ycoord;
} a, b, c;
In this case we do not have a name for the struct
Hence we cannot reuse the struct definition
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 The typedef construct
• The typedef construct can be used to give new names to (existing) data types
in C
typedef float density; // density is a new name for float
density d1, d2; // d1, d2 are two variables
d1 = 2.4;
• In the typedef definition no variable is allocated space

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 Complicated examples of typedef
typedef int intarr[50];
intarr A, // A is an array of 50 integers
B[20], // B is an array of 20 arrays of 50 integers
*C; // C is a pointer to an array of 50 integers
int A[50], B[20][50], (*C)[50];

typedef int *intptr;

intptr p, // p in an int pointer
q[100], // q is an array of 100 int pointers
*r; // r is a pointer to an int pointer
int *p, *q[100], **r;

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 Structures and typedef
Without typedef: With typedef:
struct point { typedef struct {
float xcoord; float xcoord;
float ycoord; float ycoord;
}; } point;
struct point a, b, c; point a, b, c;
Here struct point is new data type. Here point is a new data type. Since struct
is not followed by a name, this data type can be
addressed only by the given name point.

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 Accessing the members of a structure
• The members of a structure are accessed individually
• A member of structure can be accessed in the following manner:
<variable-name>.<member-name>
• The variable-name is the name of the structure variable, member-name
refers to the name of a member within the structure
• Dot operator is used to access members of structure through structure-type
variable
struct point {
float xcoord;
float ycoord;
} a, b;
a.xcoord = 3.2; b.ycoord = 2.3; a.ycoord = b.xcoord = 0.0;

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 Structure initialization
• Structure variable may be initialized in the following. It is similar to array ini-
tialization.
• Values are provided within braces and individual elements will be separated
by commas
struct point {
float xcoord; a.xcoord = 2.0;
float ycoord; a.ycoord = 1.0;
}; b.xcoord = 0;
struct point a = {2.0, 1.0}; b.ycoord = 0;
struct point b = {0,0};

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 Example: Addition of complex numbers
int main(){
struct complex{
float real;
float imag;
} a, b, c; Structure declaration can be out-
scanf("%f%f",&a.real, &a.imag); side main() as well. This is nec-
scanf("%f%f",&b.real, &b.imag); essary if a program has multiple
c.real = a.real + b.real; functions using a structure type.
c.imag = a.imag + b.imag;
printf("c = %f + j (%f)\n", c.real, c.imag);
return 0;
}

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 Assignment of structure variables
int main(){
struct stud{ struct stud a = {23, "Kanika", 92.3};
int roll; struct stud b = {47, "Sanjoy", 42.5};
char name[20]; struct stud c;
float marks; c = b;
}; return 0;
}

A structure variable can be directly assigned to another variable of similar type. All individ-
ual members are get assigned / copied.

But two structures cannot be compared for equality in the following manner
if( a == b ) {...}

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 Copying structures
int a[4]={1,2,3,4}; struct list{
int b[4]; int a[4];
b = a; // not allowed };
struct list x, y;
x.a[0] = 0; x.a[1] = 1;
x.a[2] = 2; x.a[3] = 3;
y = x; // allowed

Structures can be copied directly even if it contains array.

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 Assigning all members together
struct stud{
int roll;
char name[20];
float marks;
} x;

x = { 24, "Anushree Pal", 98.3 }; // NOT ALLOWED

x = (struct stud){ 24, "Anushree Pal", 98.3 }; // ALLOWED

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 Size of a structure
struct stud { struct stud {
char name[34]; char *name;
int roll; int roll;
float marks; float marks;
} x; } x;

Total space required is 34 + 4 + 4 = 42 bytes. How- Assuming 64-bit addresses, sizeof(x) will re-
ever, sizeof(x) can return 44 or 48 (nearest turn 16 as 8+4+4=16. This will be true irre-
larger multiple of 4 or 8). spective of how much memory you malloc to
x.name.

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 Arrays of structures
• Once a structure data type is defined, we can declare arrays of structures
struct stud {
int roll;
char name[20];
float marks;
};
struct stud list[10];
• The individual members can be accessed as
list[5].roll
list[8].name
list[2].name[4]

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 Example: Store a list of students name & CPI
struct rec {
char name[50]; float cpi;
};
int main(){
int i; float avg = 0.0; struct rec stud[100];
printf("Enter record for 100 students\n");
for(i=0; i<100; i++){
printf("Enter name and cpi");
scanf("%s%f", stud[i].name, &stud[i].cpi);
}
for(i=0; i<100; i++) avg += stud[i].cpi;
avg /= 100;
printf("Average CPI=%f\n",avg);
return 0;
}
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 Nested structures
typedef struct {
float x, y;
} point ;

typedef struct {
point a, b, c; float area;
} triangle ;

triangle T = {{1,2}, {3.0,4.0}, {-6,-5}, -1};

T.area = T.a.x * (T.b.y - T.c.y) +
T.b.x * (T.c.y - T.a.y) +
T.c.x * (T.a.y - T.b.y);
T.area /= 2;
if(T.area < 0) T.area = -T.area;

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 Structure containment cannot be recursive
• It is not allowed to that struct a contains struct a as a member
• It is not allowed that struct a contains struct b and struct b contains
struct a
• It is allowed that a structure contains pointer to a structure of the same type
• These are known as self-referencing pointers
• Such pointers are used extensively to create chains and other types of linked
data structures
typedef struct _stud { // a name after struct is mandatory
int roll; char name[30]; float cpi;
struct _stud *next; // self referencing pointer
} student;
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 Structures and functions
typedef struct { int main(){
float real, imag; complex a={3, 4};
} complex ; complex b={7, 8};
print(a); print(b);
void swap(complex a, complex b){ swap(a,b);
complex t; print(a); print(b);
t = a; a = b; b = t; return 0;
} }

void print(complex a){

printf("(%f,%f)\n",a.real, a.imag);
}

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 Structures and functions
typedef struct { int main(){
float real, imag; complex a={3, 4};
} complex ; complex b={7, 8};
print(a); print(b);
void swap(complex a, complex b){ swap(a,b);
complex t; print(a); print(b);
t = a; a = b; b = t; return 0;
} }

void print(complex a){

printf("(%f,%f)\n",a.real, a.imag); Output:
} (3.000000,4.000000)
(7.000000,8.000000)
(3.000000,4.000000)
(7.000000,8.000000)

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 Structures can be returned from functions
typedef struct { int main(){
float real, imag; complex a={3, 4};
} complex ; complex b={7, 8};
complex x;
complex add(complex a, complex b){ x = add(a, b);
complex t; printf("(%f,%f)\n",x.real, x.imag);
t.real = a.real + b.real; return 0;
t.imag = a.imag + b.imag; }
return t;
}
Output:
(10.000000,12.000000)

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 Structures and Pointers
Once ptr points to a structure variable, the mem-
struct rec { bers can be accessed as:
int roll;
ptr->roll;
char name[50];
ptr->name;
float cpi;
}; ptr->cpi;
struct rec *ptr; The symbol -> is called arrow operator.

Arrow operator used to access members of a structure through structure type pointer.
ptr->member is a shortcut for (*ptr).member.

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 Structures and Pointers
typedef struct {
float re, im;
} complex;
void add(complex *a, complex *b, complex *c){
c->re = a->re + b->re;
c->im = a->im + b->im;
}
int main(){
complex a, b, c;
scanf("%f%f",&a.re, &a.im);
scanf("%f%f",&b.re, &b.im);
add(&a, &b, &c);
printf("(%f,%f)\n",c.re, c.im);
return 0;
}

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 Note
• When using structure pointers, we should take care of operator precedence
• Member operator “.” has higher priority than dereferencing operator “*”
• 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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 Unions
• In a struct, space is allocated as the sum of the space required by its members
• In union, space is allocated as the union of the spaces required by its members
• We use union when we want only one of the members, but do not know which
one
• Suppose that we wish to store the height of a student in one of the following
formats
• In FPS system, it is a string like 5’10” (use char array of size 8)
• In CGS system, it is an integer like 178 (4 bytes are needed)
• in MKS system, it is a floating point number 1.78 (4 bytes needed)
• If we use a structure with all these members, total 16 bytes will be needed
• A union will use only max(8,4,4) = 8 bytes of space
• Additional flag needs to be stores to which representation it is
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 Union example
typedef struct { int main(){
char name[20]; stud s;
float cpi; printf("Union size: %lu\n",sizeof(s.height));
char htype; printf("Enter type of height (f/c/m):");
union{ scanf("%c",&s.htype); printf("Enter height:");
char fps[8]; if(s.htype == 'f') scanf("%s",s.height.fps);
int cgs; else if(s.htype == 'c') scanf("%d",&s.height.cgs);
float mks; else if(s.htype == 'm') scanf("%f",&s.height.mks);
} height; switch(s.htype){
} stud; case 'f': printf("%s\n",s.height.fps); break;
Output: case 'c': printf("%d\n",s.height.cgs); break;
Union size: 8 case 'm': printf("%f\n",s.height.mks); break;
Enter type of default: printf("Unknown\n"); break;
height (f/c/m):f }
Enter height:2'10" return 0;
2'10" }
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 Practice problems
• Define a structure to store points on 2D plane. Define a structure to store a rectangle. Assume that the sides of the
rectangle are parallel to X and Y axis. Therefore you need to store bottom-left and top-right corners of a rectangle.
Additionally, you can have an id (int) for each rectangle. Define an array of such rectangles. Populate the array
with some random rectangles. Given the ids of two rectangles, determine whether those are overlapping. Find
out the smallest rectangle that covers all the rectangles present in the array.
• Suppose you need to maintain records of student information. For each student, you need to store roll numbers
(string) and grades for 6 subjects. Grades for a subject can be AA, AB, BB, BC, CC, CD, and DD. Here, AA refers to 10
and DD refers to 4. Similarly for other grades. Assume that the credit for 6 subjects are as follows: 4, 3, 5, 2, 1, 3.
Display the whole record sorted in terms of (a) roll number, (b) cpi.

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