MODULE 5- STRUCTURES AND UNIONS

STRUCTURES
INTRODUCTION TO STRUCTURES
• A structure is basically similar to records.
• It stores related information about an entity.
• Structure is basically a user defined data type which can store related information
together (even of different data types)
• The major difference between a structure and an array is that an array contains related
information of same data type.
• A structure is a collection of variables under single name. The variables of structure are
of different data types and each has a name that is used to select it from the structure.
• Examples:
❖ Student record: student id, name, branch, fees
❖ Bank account: account number, name, balance
STRUCTURE DECLARATION
• The structure is declared using the keyword struct followed by name of the structure
• All the variables of the structure are declared within the structure
• The syntax is
struct structure-name
{
data_type var-name;
data_type var-name;
-----
};
• For example, if we want to define a structure for a student, the related information is
name, roll_number, course, fees. This can be declared using the structure as
struct student
{
char name [20];
int roll_number;
char course [20];
float fees;
};
• Now the structure has become a user-defined data type. Each var-name declared within
a structure is called a member of the structure.

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 • The structure declaration does not allocate any memory or consume storage space. It
only gives a template to the C compiler how structure looks like and details of the
members
• Similarly, to any other data types, memory is allocated for the structure when we
declare a structure variable. For example, we define variable student by writing, struct
student stu1; where struct student→data type stu1→ variable
• In the following syntax, the variable is declared at the time of declaration.

struct student
{
char name [20];
int roll_number;
char course [20];
float fees;
} stu1, stu2;

In this declaration, we declared two variables stu1 and stu2 of the structure student

Two ways of declaring structure variable:

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Example: Declare a structure to store information about an employee
struct Employee
{
int EmpId;
char name [20];
char dept [10];
float salary;
};
Examples

TYPEDEF DECLARATION
• The typedef keyword enables the user to create a new data type name for an existing
data type
• By using typedef, no new data is created, rather an alternative name is given to a known
data type

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 • The general syntax is typedef existing data type new_data type
for example, typedef int INTEGER;
then INTEGER is the new name of data type int
• A typedef declaration is a synonym for the type
for example,

typedef struct student

{
int r_no;
char name [20];
char course [20];
float fees;
};
• Here, we have preceded the structure’s name with the keyword typedef, the student
becomes a new data type
• One can straightaway declare variables of type int, float, char, double to declare a
variable → student stud1;

INITIALIZATION OF STRUCTURES
• A structure can be initialized in the same way as other data types initialized. The process
of initializing a structure is assigning some constants to the members of the structure.
• When user does not explicitly initialize the structure, C automatically does it
❖ For int and float, the values are initialized to zero
❖ For char and string members they are initialized to ‘\0’.
• The initializers are enclosed in braces and are comma separated. However, initializers
must match their corresponding types in the structure definition
• When all the members of structure are not initialized, it is called partial initialization.

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 • In case of partial initialization, first few members of the structure are initialized and
those that are uninitialized are assigned default values.
ACCESSING THE MEMBERS OF A STRUTCURE
• Each member in a structure can be used like a normal variable, but its name is longer
• A structure variable can be accessed by using dot (.) operator
• The general syntax is
struct_variable. member_name;
• The dot operator is used to select a particular member of a structure

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COPYING AND COMPARING STRUCTURE VARIABLES
• We can assign a structure to another structure of the same type
• If we have two structure variables stud1 and stud2 of type struct student is given as
• C does not permit comparison of one structure variable with another. However,
individual members of one structure can be compared with individual members of
another structure
• When we compare one structure member with another structure’s member, the
comparison will behave like any ordinary variable comparison

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Example Programs
1. Write a program using structures to read and display the information about a
student.
#include<stdio.h>
struct student
{
int roll_no;
char name[20];
char branch[10];
};
void main()
{
struct student s1;
printf(“enter roll.no, name and branch”);
scanf(“%d%s,%s”,&s1.roll_no,s1.name.s1.branch);
printf(“RollNo=%d\nName=%s\nBranch=%s\n”,s1.roll_no,s1.name,s1.branch);
}

2. Write a program using structures to read and display the information about
an Employee.
struct Employee
{
int Id;
char name[20];
float salary;
};
void main()
{
struct Employee E1;
printf(“Enter Employee Id,name and Salary”);
scanf(“%d%s,%f”,&E1.Id,E1.name.e1.salary);
printf(“EmpID=%d\nName=%s\nSalary=%f\n”,E1.Id,E1.name,E1.salary);
}
ARRAYS OF STRUCTURES
• Consider an example of employees working in an organization. In this case, defining a
separate structure for every employee is not a viable solution. Thus, we can have a
common structure definition for all three employees.
• This can be done by declaring an array of structure employees.

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 • An array of structures in C can be defined as the collection of multiple structures
variables where each variable contains information about different entities.
• The array of structures in C are used to store information about multiple entities of
different data types.
• The array of structures is also known as the collection of structures.
• The general syntax is

Consider the given example

A student array can be declared as → struct stu[30];

Now assigning the value to the ith student of the class is given by
In order to initialize the array of structure variables at the time of declaration is given by
struct stu[3]={{01, “Aman”, “BCA”, 45000}, {02, “Akash”, “BCA”, 45000}, {03, “Madhuri”,
“BCA”, 45000}};
One can also use looping statement also for reading and writing the value of array of structures

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Example program:
#include<stdio.h>
struct student
{
int roll_no;
char name[20];
};
void main()
{
struct student s1[20];
int i,n;
printf(“Enter number of student:”);
scanf(“%d”,&n);
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
{
printf(“enter rollno and name student-%d”,i+1);
scanf(“%d%s,&s1[i].roll_no,s1[i].name);
}
for(i=0;i<n;i++)
{
printf(“Details of student-%d”,i+1);
printf(“RollNo=%d\tName=%s\n”,s1*i+.roll_no,s1[i].name);
}
}

STRUCTURES AND FUNCTIONS

• For structures to be fully useful, we must have a mechanism to pass them to functions
and return them.
• A function may access the structure in three ways
❖ Passing individual members
❖ Passing the entire structure
❖ Passing the address of the structure
1. Passing individual members
• elementary method
• unmanageable and inefficient when structure size is large

Example
struct student

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{
char name[20];
int rollno;
};
void display(char [],int);
void main()
{
struct student s1;
printf(“enter name &rollno:”);
scanf(“%s%d”,s1.name,&s1.rollno);
display(s1.name,s1.rollno);
}
void display(char n[20],int rn)
{
printf(“Name:%s\n”,n);
printf(“Rollno:%d”,rn);
}
2. Passing the entire structure
• Any changes to structure members within the function are not reflected in the original
structure
• Called function must return entire structure back to the calling function
Example
void display(struct student s);
struct student
{
char name[20];
int rollno;
}
void main()
{
struct student s1;
printf(“enter name & rollno:”);
scanf(“%s%d”,s1.name,&s1.rollno);
display(s1);
}
void display(struct student s1)
{
printf(“Name:%s\n”,s1.name);
printf(“RollNo:%d”,s1.rollno);

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}
3. Passing the address of the structure
more efficient
Example
struct student
{
char name[20];
int rollno;
}
void display(struct student *s);
main()
{
struct student s1;
printf(“enter name & rollno:”);
scanf(“%s%d”,s1.name,&s1.rollno);
display(&s1);
}
void display(struct student *r)
{
printf(“Rollno:%d”,r->rollno);
printf(“Name:%s”,r->name);
}
Example Program:
Program to display the coordinates (x,y) of a point p using structure and functions
1. Passing individual member
struct point
{
int x;
int y;
};
void display(int, int);
void main()
{
struct point p={2,3};
display(p1.x,p2.y);
}
void display(int a,int b)
{
printf(“the coordinates of the point are:%d %d”,a,b);

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}

2. Passing entire member

struct point
{
int x;
int y;
};
void display(struct point);
void main()
{
struct point p={2,3};
display(p);
}
void display(struct point p)
{
printf(“The coordinates of the point are:%d %d”,p.x,p.y);
}

3. Passing the address of the structure

struct point
{
int x;
int y;
};
void display(struct point *);
void main()
{
struct point p={2,3};
display(&p);
}
void display(struct point *p)
{
printf(“The coordinates of the point are:%d %d”,p->x,p->y);
}

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 UNIONS
INTRODUCTION TO UNIONS
• Union is a collection of variables of different data types
• The difference between the structure and the array is that, in case of unions – we store
information in one field at any one time
• Unions are used to save memory. They are useful for applications that involve multiple
members

DECLARATION OF UNIONS
• The declaration of union is same as that of structure declaration.
• The syntax for union declaration is given by
union union-name
{
data_type var_name;
data_type var_name;
------
};
• The typedef keyword can also be used to simplify the declaration of union variables.

ACCESSING THE MEMBERS OF A UNION

• A union variable can be accessed by using dot (.) operator
• The dot operator is used to select a particular member of a union

INITIALIZATION OF UNIONS
• The striking difference between the structure and union is that, in case of union – the
field share the same memory space, so fresh data replaces any existing data.

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 EXAMPLE 1 EXAMPLE 2

Vision: The Department of Computer Science and Engineering shall create professionally competent
and socially responsible engineers capable of working in global environment