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CS6202 - PROGRAMMING & DATA STRUCTURES I

UNIT II
Part A

1. Define structure.
A structure is a user defined data type that groups logically related data items of different
data types into a single unit. All the elements of a structure are stored at contiguous
memory locations.

2. What is meant by structure template?

A structure template contains definition of a structure name and a list of members along
with data types.

3. Write the syntax for structure declaration and definition

Structure definition:
struct structure_name
{
Datatype member1;
Datatype member2;

};
Structure declaration:
struct structure_name v1,v2,;
4. Define union.
A union is a user defined data type similar to structure. The union groups logically related
data items of different data types into a single unit. But the memory allocation for union
is different from structure.

5. Write the syntax for union declaration and definition.

Union definition:
union union_name
{
Datatype member1;
Datatype member2;

};
Union declaration:
union union _name v1,v2,;

6. How structures are initialized? Give example.

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A structure can be initialized in two ways.

struct student
{
int rno;
int age;
char name[20];
};
Structure variable initialization
o struct student s1={223,17,john};
Structure member by member initialization
o s1.rno=223;
o s1.age=17;
o s1.name=john;
o
7. What are nested structures?
A structure built within another structure is called nested structures or structure within a
structure.
Example:
struct dob
{
int day;
int month;
int year;

};
struct student
{
int rno;
char name[20];
struct dob date;

};

8. What is meant by array of structures?

An array of structure contains data elements of every structure variable stored into an
array.
Example:
struct student
{
int rno;
int age;

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char name[20];
}s[15];

9. What is structure assignment?

The value of one structure variable is assigned to another variable of same type using
assignment statement. If the e1 and e2 are structure variables of type employee then the
structure assignment can be performed as
e1=e2;
This assigns value of structure variable e2 to e1.

10. How do you reference a structure member?

The structure members cannot be accessed directly. They can be accessed by using the
name of the structure variable followed by a dot(.) and then the name of the member
variable.
struct student
{
int rno;
int age;
char name[20];
}s1;
s1.rno=223;
s1.age=17;
s1.name=john;

11. Differentiate structure and union.

S.No. Structure Union
1. A structure is defined with struct A union is defined with union
keyword keyword
2. All members of a structure can be The members of a union can be utilized
utilized simultaneously. only one at a time.
3. The size of a structure variable is equal The size of the union variable is equal
to the sum of the size of the members to the size of the largest member.
4. Structure members are allocated Union members share common
distinct memory locations memory space .
5. Structures are not memory efficient Unions are memory efficient.
when compared to unions.

12. Differentiate structure and arrays.

S.No. Structure Array
1. Definition and declaration of program Definition and declaration of program
in structures are different. in arrays are same.

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2. A structure is a group of dissimilar data An array is a group of similar data

3. Nested structures is possible No nested arrays
4. Structure members are accessed with Index is used to access data in arrays.
dot (.) operator.
5. In structures, reserved word struct is In arrays, no reserved word is used.
used.

13. What are the advantages of union over structure?

Union save memory space compared to structures since the size of union is equal
to its largest sized member.
Unions are useful in situations where there is a need to use only one of its member
elements at a time

14. Write the syntax for pointers to structure.

struct structure_name
{
Datatype member1;
Datatype member2;

}s1;
struct structure_name *ptr;
ptr=&s1;

15. What is a file?

A file is a collection of data that is available in permanent storage.

16. Write the syntax for file declaration.

Syntax:
FILE *filepointer;
Example:
FILE *fp;

17. What are file modes?

Modes tell about the type of operation to be performed on a file that is being opened.
There are three basic file modes:
a. Read
b. Write
c. Append

18. Write the syntax to open a file.

Syntax:

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FILE *filepointer;
filepointer = fopen(filename,mode);
Example:
FILE *fp;
fp=fopen(hai.txt,r);

19. What is the significance of fclose() function?

This function closes a file that has been opened for an operation.
Syntax:
fclose(filepointer);

20. What are the steps for using a file?

The basic steps for using a file in C are as follows:
a. Create a variable of type FILE *;
b. Open the file using fopen function and assign the file to the variable.
c. Check to make sure that the file was successfully opened by checking to see if the
variable is equal to NULL.
d. Perform file operations like read,write,

21. What are the functions of text files in stdio library?

a. fopen() opens a file.
b. fclose() closes a file.
c. feof() - detects end-of-file marker in a file.
d. fscanf() reads formatted input from a file.
e. fprintf() writes formatted output to a file.
f. fgets() reads a string from a file
g. fputs() writes a string to a file
h. fgets() reads a character from a file
i. fputs() writes a character to a file

22. What are the file pointers of stdlib.h?

There are three special file pointers.
1. stdin (Standard input)
2. stdout (Standard output)
3. stderr (Standard error)

23. What are the types of files?

There are two types
a. Text file
b. Binary file

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If a large amount of numerical data is to be stored, text files will be insufficient. In such
cases, binary files can be used.

24. What are the features of binary files?

Any structure can be used in the file.
Contents can be changed anywhere in the file.

25. What are the functions to access files randomly?

There are three functions to perform random access.
ftell() tells the current position of a file
fseek() moves to a desired location from the current position
rewind() resets the file position to the beginning of a file.

Part B

1. Explain the different modes in which a file can be opened.

2. Explain the functions fscanf, fprintf, fgets, fputs, getw, putw, getc, putc, fread, fwrite,
feof, ferror,fseek,ftell,rewind with example.
3. Explain structures with an example
4. Explain union with an example
5. Discuss about the file handling concepts in C
6. Explain different ways to read data from a file.
7. Explain different ways to write data to a file
8. Design a c program to create the employee database and to perform the manipulations
such as adding a record, deleting a record, updating a record.
9. Explain about structure within structure with example.

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