Scribd
Upload
60 views

C Structs and Pointers (With Examples)

This document discusses using pointers with structs in C programming. It explains that pointers can be used to access members of a struct, and demonstrates doing so with an example. It also shows how to dynamically allocate memory for structs using malloc at runtime, since the number of structs needed may not be known at compile time. Memory is allocated for n structs based on user input, and the ptr pointer is used to access members of each struct.

Uploaded by

Harshit Naik
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
60 views

C Structs and Pointers (With Examples)

This document discusses using pointers with structs in C programming. It explains that pointers can be used to access members of a struct, and demonstrates doing so with an example. It also shows how to dynamically allocate memory for structs using malloc at runtime, since the number of structs needed may not be known at compile time. Memory is allocated for n structs based on user input, and the ptr pointer is used to access members of each struct.

Uploaded by

Harshit Naik
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

programiz.

com

C structs and Pointers (With Examples)

4 minutes

In this tutorial, you'll learn to use pointers to access members of


structs in C programming. You will also learn to dynamically
allocate memory of struct types.

Before you learn about how pointers can be used with structs, be
sure to check these tutorials:

• C Pointers

• C struct

C Pointers to struct

Here's how you can create pointers to structs.

struct name {
member1;
member2;
.
.
};

int main()
{
struct name *ptr, Harry;
}

Here, ptr is a pointer to struct.

Example: Access members using Pointer

To access members of a structure using pointers, we use the ->


operator.
#include <stdio.h>
struct person
{
int age;
float weight;
};

int main()
{
struct person *personPtr, person1;
personPtr = &person1;

printf("Enter age: ");


scanf("%d", &personPtr->age);

printf("Enter weight: ");


scanf("%f", &personPtr->weight);

printf("Displaying:\n");
printf("Age: %d\n", personPtr->age);
printf("weight: %f", personPtr->weight);

return 0;
}

In this example, the address of person1 is stored in the personPtr


pointer using personPtr = &person1;.

Now, you can access the members of person1 using the


personPtr pointer.

By the way,

• personPtr->age is equivalent to (*personPtr).age

• personPtr->weight is equivalent to (*personPtr).weight

Dynamic memory allocation of structs

Before you proceed this section, we recommend you to check C


dynamic memory allocation.

Sometimes, the number of struct variables you declared may be


insufficient. You may need to allocate memory during run-time.
Here's how you can achieve this in C programming.

Example: Dynamic memory allocation of structs

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
struct person {
int age;
float weight;
char name[30];
};

int main()
{
struct person *ptr;
int i, n;

printf("Enter the number of persons: ");


scanf("%d", &n);

// allocating memory for n numbers of struct


person
ptr = (struct person*) malloc(n *
sizeof(struct person));

for(i = 0; i < n; ++i)


{
printf("Enter first name and age
respectively: ");

// To access members of 1st struct person,


// ptr->name and ptr->age is used

// To access members of 2nd struct person,


// (ptr+1)->name and (ptr+1)->age is used
scanf("%s %d", (ptr+i)->name,
&(ptr+i)->age);
}
printf("Displaying Information:\n");
for(i = 0; i < n; ++i)
printf("Name: %s\tAge: %d\n",
(ptr+i)->name, (ptr+i)->age);

return 0;
}

When you run the program, the output will be:

Enter the number of persons: 2


Enter first name and age respectively: Harry 24
Enter first name and age respectively: Gary 32
Displaying Information:
Name: Harry Age: 24
Name: Gary Age: 32

In the above example, n number of struct variables are created


where n is entered by the user.

To allocate the memory for n number of struct person, we used,

ptr = (struct person*) malloc(n * sizeof(struct


person));

Then, we used the ptr pointer to access elements of person.

You might also like