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C Structure

C NOTES

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14 views

C Structure

C NOTES

Uploaded by

sureshroopa2k15
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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C Structure

Why use structure?


In C, there are cases where we need to store multiple attributes of an entity. It is not
necessary that an entity has all the information of one type only. It can have different
attributes of different data types. For example, an entity Student may have its name
(string), roll number (int), marks (float). To store such type of information regarding an entity
student, we have the following approaches:
o Construct individual arrays for storing names, roll numbers, and marks.
o Use a special data structure to store the collection of different data types.
Let's look at the first approach in detail.
1. #include<stdio.h>
2. void main ()
3. {
4. char names[2][10],dummy; // 2-dimensioanal character array names is used to store th
e names of the students
5. int roll_numbers[2],i;
6. float marks[2];
7. for (i=0;i<3;i++)
8. {
9.
10. printf("Enter the name, roll number, and marks of the student %d",i+1);
11. scanf("%s %d %f",&names[i],&roll_numbers[i],&marks[i]);
12. scanf("%c",&dummy); // enter will be stored into dummy character at each iteration
13. }
14. printf("Printing the Student details ...\n");
15. for (i=0;i<3;i++)
16. {
17. printf("%s %d %f\n",names[i],roll_numbers[i],marks[i]);
18. }
19. }
Test it Now
Output

Enter the name, roll number, and marks of the student 1Arun 90 91
Enter the name, roll number, and marks of the student 2Varun 91 56
Enter the name, roll number, and marks of the student 3Sham 89 69

Printing the Student details...


Arun 90 91.000000
Varun 91 56.000000
Sham 89 69.000000

The above program may fulfill our requirement of storing the information of an entity
student. However, the program is very complex, and the complexity increase with the
amount of the input. The elements of each of the array are stored contiguously, but all the
arrays may not be stored contiguously in the memory. C provides you with an additional and
simpler approach where you can use a special data structure, i.e., structure, in which, you
can group all the information of different data type regarding an entity.
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What is Structure
Structure in c is a user-defined data type that enables us to store the collection of different
data types. Each element of a structure is called a member. Structures ca; simulate the use
of classes and templates as it can store various information
The ,struct keyword is used to define the structure. Let's see the syntax to define the
structure in c.
1. struct structure_name
2. {
3. data_type member1;
4. data_type member2;
5. .
6. .
7. data_type memeberN;
8. };
Test it Now
Let's see the example to define a structure for an entity employee in c.
1. struct employee
2. { int id;
3. char name[20];
4. float salary;
5. };
Test it Now
The following image shows the memory allocation of the structure employee that is defined
in the above example.
Here, struct is the keyword; employee is the name of the structure; id, name,
and salary are the members or fields of the structure. Let's understand it by the diagram
given below:

Declaring structure variable


We can declare a variable for the structure so that we can access the member of the
structure easily. There are two ways to declare structure variable:
1. By struct keyword within main() function
2. By declaring a variable at the time of defining the structure.
1st way:
Let's see the example to declare the structure variable by struct keyword. It should be
declared within the main function.
1. struct employee
2. { int id;
3. char name[50];
4. float salary;
5. };
Test it Now
Now write given code inside the main() function.
1. struct employee e1, e2;
Test it Now
The variables e1 and e2 can be used to access the values stored in the structure. Here, e1
and e2 can be treated in the same way as the objects in C++ and Java.
2nd way:
Let's see another way to declare variable at the time of defining the structure.
1. struct employee
2. { int id;
3. char name[50];
4. float salary;
5. }e1,e2;
Test it Now
Which approach is good
If number of variables are not fixed, use the 1st approach. It provides you the flexibility to
declare the structure variable many times.
If no. of variables are fixed, use 2nd approach. It saves your code to declare a variable in
main() function.
Accessing members of the structure
There are two ways to access structure members:
1. By . (member or dot operator)
2. By -> (structure pointer operator)
Let's see the code to access the id member of p1 variable by. (member) operator.
1. p1.id
Test it Now
C Structure example
Let's see a simple example of structure in C language.
1. #include<stdio.h>
2. #include <string.h>
3. struct employee
4. { int id;
5. char name[50];
6. }e1; //declaring e1 variable for structure
7. int main( )
8. {
9. //store first employee information
10. e1.id=101;
11. strcpy(e1.name, "Sonoo Jaiswal");//copying string into char array
12. //printing first employee information
13. printf( "employee 1 id : %d\n", e1.id);
14. printf( "employee 1 name : %s\n", e1.name);
15. return 0;
16. }
Test it Now
Output:

employee 1 id : 101
employee 1 name : Sonoo Jaiswal
Let's see another example of the structure in C language to store many employees
information.

1. #include<stdio.h>
2. #include <string.h>
3. struct employee
4. { int id;
5. char name[50];
6. float salary;
7. }e1,e2; //declaring e1 and e2 variables for structure
8. int main( )
9. {
10. //store first employee information
11. e1.id=101;
12. strcpy(e1.name, "Sonoo Jaiswal");//copying string into char array
13. e1.salary=56000;
14.
15. //store second employee information
16. e2.id=102;
17. strcpy(e2.name, "James Bond");
18. e2.salary=126000;
19.
20. //printing first employee information
21. printf( "employee 1 id : %d\n", e1.id);
22. printf( "employee 1 name : %s\n", e1.name);
23. printf( "employee 1 salary : %f\n", e1.salary);
24.
25. //printing second employee information
26. printf( "employee 2 id : %d\n", e2.id);
27. printf( "employee 2 name : %s\n", e2.name);
28. printf( "employee 2 salary : %f\n", e2.salary);
29. return 0;
30. }
Output:

employee 1 id : 101
employee 1 name : Sonoo Jaiswal
employee 1 salary : 56000.000000
employee 2 id : 102
employee 2 name : James Bond employee 2 salary : 126000.000000

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