c structures

[jmwalloh]

how do you declare and name a structure in c that probably has about 5 elements and how do you declare a pointer to a structure also like in linked lists and double linked lists:confused:

[aquavitae]

typedef struct {
int element1;
float element2;
// etc...
} MyStruct;

MyStruct a_struct;

MyStruct* pointer_to_a_struct = &a_struct;


Hope this helps.

[phossal]

I do it a little differently.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h> /* Includes for good measure : ) */


struct vehicle_struct {
char name[30];
int engines;
int passengers;
};

typedef struct vehicle_struct vehicle;

int main(int argc, char * argv) {
vehicle car;
vehicle *car_ptr = &car; /* *car_ptr points to car ? */

strcpy(car.name, "Ferrari");

printf("Vehicle: %s\n", car.name);
printf("Vehicle_ptr: %s\n", (*car_ptr).name);

return(0);
};

[Wybiral]

Here's a singly linked list. Basically you just need to have a pointer of the structures own type inside itself (so that it can contain a pointer to the next element).

This one uses a simple "push" or "prepend" style append since it's the easiest. Just create a pointer to the top link, create a new link and set it's "next" pointer to the link that used to be on top... Then place the new one on top. The same effect as "pushing" something onto a stack.

Dynamic data like this requires dynamic memory allocation, so there is a "free_list" function to clean up.


#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

struct list_t
{
int data;
struct list_t *next;
};
typedef struct list_t list;

void push(list **link, int data)
{
list *temp = (*link);
(*link) = (list*)malloc(sizeof(list));
(*link)->data = data;
(*link)->next = temp;
}

void print_list(list *link)
{
while(link)
{
printf("%i\n", link->data);
link = link->next;
}
}

void free_list(list *link)
{
list *next;
while(link)
{
next = link->next;
free(link);
link = next;
}
}

int main()
{
list *my_list = NULL;
push(&my_list, 10);
push(&my_list, 20);
push(&my_list, 30);
print_list(my_list);
free_list(my_list);
return 0;
}

[hod139]

<snip>

void push(list **link, int data)
{
list *temp = (*link);
(*link) = (list*)malloc(sizeof(list));
(*link)->data = data;
(*link)->next = temp;
}

<snip>

To hopefully save future headaches, note that link is passed as a pointer to the list pointer (list **). This is very important. Even though the code will compile if you pass only a list*, you will be allocating memory for a copy of the list, not the actual list, and you will get a runtime seg fault.

[Wybiral]

Yeah, it's meant to use list pointers, passed by reference...


push(&my_list, 10);
push(&my_list, 20);
push(&my_list, 30);


Where "my_list" is "list*"

It's because it's "prepend"ing them and the "top" changes. Whereas this wouldn't be a problem if you were appending to the end, where the top remains the same. This is really more of a stack then a list... But it should illustrate the core concepts he was asking about (pointing to it's own kind in a list-like structure)