C++ Structures:
A structure is a collection of related elements or data items. The elements of the structure are called members of the structure. A structure is unlike an array. All elements in an array are of the same type. But in structures, the elements can be of different types.
The syntax of a structure is very similar to that of a class in C++. The structures are commonly used in file processing. A file is a collection of related records and a record is a collection of related fields of same or different data type. The structures are also a collection of same or different data types. These are, therefore, also known as records.
Defining a Structure:
Specifying the names, types and number of data items within a structure is called defining of the structure. The keyword “struct” is used to define a structure.
The syntax for defining a structure is:
struct st_name
{
type 1;
type m;
type n;
Where
st name represents the structure name. It is also ca1led structure tag. It is used to declare variables 6f structure type.
type represents the data type of a variable.
l, m, n represents members of the structure. These may have different or same data type. The members are enclosed in braces. A semi-colon after the closing brackets ( }; ) indicates the end of the structure. Each member of a structure must have unique name but different structures may have same names.
A structure is first defined and then variables of structure type are declared. A variable of a structure type is declared to access data in the members of the structure.
Example: Declare a structure with address as tag and having two members name of character type and age of integer type.
struct address
{
char name [15];
int age ;
The structure member name is of character type with 15 characters length (including the null character) and age is of integer type.
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