Structures and Unions
Mirza Mohammad Lutfe Elahi
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
2
Outline
• Structure data type
• Store data for a structured object or record
• Process individual fields of a structured object
• Use structs as function parameters and return function results
• Understand the relationship between parallel arrays and arrays
of structured objects
• Union data type
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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User-defined Structure Types
• record
– a collection of information about one data object
• structure type
– a data type for a record composed of multiple
components
• hierarchical structure
– a structure containing components that are
structures
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
4
User-defined Structure Types
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
5
Individual Components of a Structured Data Object
• direct component selection operator
– a period placed between a structure type variable and a
component name to create a reference to the component
Name: Jupiter
Diameter: 142,800 km
Moons: 16
Orbit time: 11.9 years
Rotation time: 9.925 hours
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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Precedence and Associativity of Operators
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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Structure Data Type as I/O Parameters
• When a structured variable is passed as an input
argument to a function, all of its component values
are copied into the components of the function’s
corresponding formal parameter.
• When such a variable is used as an output argument,
the address-of operator must be applied in the same
way that we would pass output arguments of the
standard types char, int, and double.
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
9
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
10
Function Returning Structured Result
• A function that computes a structured result can be
modeled on a function computing a simple result.
• A local variable of the structure type can be allocated,
fill with the desired data, and returned as the function
result.
• The function does not return the address of the
structure as it would with an array result.
• Rather, it returns the values of all components.
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
11
Function Returning Structured Result
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
12
Function Returning Structured Result
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
13
Parallel Arrays and Arrays of Structures
• A natural organization of parallel arrays with data that
contain items of different types is to group the data into a
structure whose type we define.
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
14
Union Types
• Union - a data structure that overlays components in memory,
allowing one chunk of memory to be interpreted in multiple
ways
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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Union Types
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
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Summary
• C permits the user to define a type composed of multiple
named components.
• User-defined structure types can be used in most
situations where build-in types are value.
• Structured values can be function arguments and
function results and can be copied using the assignment
operator.
• Structure types are legitimate in declarations of variables,
of structure components, and of arrays.
• In a union type, structure components are overlaid in
memory.
CSE 115 Programming Language I ECE@NSU
