Initializing a pointer to a structure

[bhaskar_goel]

I have been unable to figure out how the following pointer to structure lp was initialized:
struct list
{
int item;
struct list *next;
};

struct list *lp, *prevlp; //pointer to struct list lp
for(lp = list; lp != NULL; lp = lp->next) //initialized as struct name???
{
if(lp->item == i)
{
if(lp == list)
list = lp->next;
else prevlp->next = lp->next;
break;
}
prevlp = lp;
}
}

As the comment states lp=list. is such an initialization possible because i have been unable to come up with other refs. Any help will be appreciated

[Axos]

I'm not a C expert (haven't used it in years) but I believe structs have a separate namespace. So somewhere outside that code snippet there could be a variable or parameter declared like this:

struct list *list;

[LKjell]

Please use the code block code to get prober format on codes. And tell us which language it is. Could be some new alien language :)
I will assume it is C.

Well I assume that you will get some problems compile that code.
That is because you cannot have a variable list assigned to struct list.
That is you cannot write struct list *list;

[nvteighen]

You have only one way on how to intialize any pointer: You make the pointer point to something already allocated by getting that object's memory address.



int myint = 8;
int *pointer_to_int = &myint;

int *myint2 = (int)malloc(sizeof(int));


A struct is actually the same, with the peculiarity that the type name consists in two keywords instead of one.


struct List
{
int node;
struct List *next;
};

struct List myList; /* Allocated in stack. */
myList.node = 1;
myList.next = NULL;

/* Or... */
struct List *myOtherList = (struct List *)malloc(sizeof(struct List));
myOtherList->node = 1;
myOtherList->next = &myList; /* Because myList is *not* a pointer! */


Of course, using malloc() requires you to free() the memory afterwards and to be careful of not leaking any memory.