Structure

Chapter Six

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 How do you think the
following program is
written?
Write a program which accepts 10
students information (name, id, address)
from the user and displays it on the
screen.
Address information includes:
kebele, Kefle_ketema, roadname
. Here is where the
concept of structure
comes.
 C++ Data Types

simple structured

integral enum floating array struct union class

char short int long bool

float double long double address

pointer reference
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 Introduction To Structure
 A structure is a collection of variables referenced under one name, providing a
convenient means of keeping related information together.

A Structure is a collection of related data items, possibly different types.

Heterogeneous in that it can be composed of data of different types.

In contrast, array is homogeneous, it can contain only data of the same type.
 A structure declaration forms a template that may be used to create structure
objects (that is, instances of a structure).
 The variables that make up the structure are called members.
• Structure members are also commonly referred to as elements or fields.

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Examples:
– Student record: studentId, name, major, gender, startYear, …
– Bank account: accountNumber, name, currency, balance, …
– Address book: name, address, telephone number, …
• In database applications, structures are called records.

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 Definition Of A Structure
 The keyword struct tells the compiler that a structure is being
declared
 Defining a structure is giving the compiler a blue print for creating
your type.
 When you create a variable based on the structure definition, all of the
member variables are created automatically and grouped under the
name you gave.
 Variable have unique name that is different from its type.

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 Con…
 Individual components of a struct type are called members (or
fields).
 Members can be of different types (simple, array or struct).
 A struct is named as a whole while individual members are named
using field identifiers.
 Complex data structures can be formed by defining arrays of
struct’s.

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 Con…
• The struct declaration names a type and names the members of the
struct.
• Note that each member name is given a type.
– Also, member names must be unique within a struct type.
• It does not allocate memory when you make a struct declaration.
• None of the struct members are associated with memory until we
declare a struct variable.

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 Syntax
struct <struct-type>{
<type> <identifier_list>;Each identifier
<type> <identifier_list>;defines a member
... of the structure.
};

• Example:
struct Date {
int day; The “Date” structure has 3
int month;
int year; members, day, month &
} ; year.

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 Examples
1. Student structure:
struct StudentInfo{
int Id;
int age; The “StudentInfo”
char Gender; structure has 4 members
double CGA;
}; of different types.

2. Student grade structure :

struct StudentGrade{
char Name[15];
char Course[9]; The “StudentGrade”
int Lab[5]; structure has 5 members
int Homework[3];
int Exam[2]; of different array types.
};

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 Example

3. Bank Account structure

struct BankAccount{
char Name[15]; The “BankAcount”
int AcountNo[10]; structure has simple,
double balance;
Date Birthday; array and structure
}; types as members.
4. Student Record structure
struct StudentRecord{
char Name[15];
int Id; The “StudentRecord”
char Dept[5];
char Gender; structure has 4
}; members.

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 struct type Declaration…
 If the struct type declaration precedes all functions it will be
visible throughout the rest of the file.
 If it is placed within a function, only that function can use it.
 It is common to place struct type declarations with TypeNames in a
(.h) header file and #include that file.
 It is possible for members of different struct types to have the same
identifiers.
 Also a non-struct variable may have the same identifier as a
structure member.
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 Structure Variable
Declaration
• Declaration of a variable of struct type:
<struct-type> <identifier_list>;
OR
struct <struct-type> <identifier_list>;
• Example:
StudentRecord Student1, Student2;
Name Name
Student1 Student2
Id Gender Id Gender
Dept Dept

Student1 and Student2 are variables of

StudentRecord type.
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 Accessing struct Members
• The members of a struct type variable are accessed with the dot (.)
operator:
<struct-variable>.<member_name>;
– Dot ( period ) is the member selection operator.
• Example full demonstration
struct Person {
char name[50];
int age;
float salary; };
int main()
{
Person p1;
Cout<<“enter your full name”<<endl;
cin.get(p1.name, 50);
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 Con…
cout<<“enter your age”<<endl;
cin>>p1.age;
cout<<“enter your salary”<<endl;
cin>>p1.salary;
cout<<“these is your information”<<endl;
cout<<“Name”<<“=“<<p1.name<<“Age”<<“=“<<p1.age<<endl;
cout<<“Salary”<<“=“<<p1.salary<<endl;
getch();
return 0;
}

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 Aggregate struct Operation
• Aggregate Operation is an operation on a data structure as a whole.
• I/O, arithmetic, and comparisons of entire struct variables are NOT
ALLOWED!
• Valid operations on an entire struct type variable:
– assignment to another struct variable of same type
– pass to a function as argument (by value or by reference)
– return as value of a function

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 struct-to-struct assignment

• The values contained in one struct type variable can be assigned to

another variable of the same struct type.
• Example:

strcpy(Student1.Name, "Almaz Kebede");

Student1.Id = 12345;
strcpy(Student1.Dept, “PreEng");
Student1.gender = 'M';
Student2 = Student1;

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 Nested Structures

• Nested or hierarchical structures.

– The type of a struct member can be another struct type.

– are very useful when there is much detailed information in each

record.
• Example: Information about each machine in a shop contains:
– an idNumber,
– a written description,
– the purchase date,
– the cost,
– and a history (including failure rate, number of days down, and date
of last service).
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 Nested Structures …
struct DateType
{ int month ; // Assume 1 . . 12
int day ; // Assume 1 . . 31
int year ; // Assume 1900 . . 2050
};

struct StatisticsType
{ float failRate ;
DateType lastServiced ; // DateType is a struct type
int downDays ;
};

struct MachineRec
{ int idNumber ;
string description ;
StatisticsType history ; // StatisticsType is a struct type
DateType purchaseDate ;
float cost ;
};

MachineRec machine ;
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 Nested structures…

• Examples 2:
struct point{
double x, y;
};
point P;
line
struct line{
point p1, p2; p1 p2
}; x y x y
line L;

struct triangle{
point p1, p2, p3;
};
triangle T;
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Example 3

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 Con…

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 Arrays of structures
• The most common usage of structures is in arrays of structures.
• To declare an array of structures,
• First define a structure and then declare an array variable of that type.
• Example, to declare a 100-element array of structures of type
StudentRecord write, struct StudentRecord student_info[100];
• To access a specific structure, index the structure name. For example,
to print the Name code of structure 3, write
cout<<student_info[2]. Name ;
• Arrays of structures begin indexing at 0.

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1. #include<iostream.h>
2. #include<conio.h>
3. struct stud{
4. int studid;
5. char sname[50];
6. int year;
7. };
8. int main(){
9. stud st[5];
10. clrscr();
11. for (int j=0;j<5;j++){
12. cout<<"enter the ID credintials of stud"<<j<<endl;
13. cin>>st[j].studid;
14. cout<<"enter the name of stud"<<j<<endl;
15. cin>>st[j].sname;
16. cout<<"enter the year of stud"<<j<<endl;
17. cin>>st[j].year;
18. }
19. clrscr();
20. cout<<"StudId" <<'\t' <<"Sname" <<'\t'<<"Year" <<endl;
21. for(int k=0;k<5;k++){
22. cout<<st[k].studid<<'\t'<<st[k].sname<<'\t'<<st[k].year<<endl;
23. }
24. getch();
25. return 0;
26. }

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 Passing Structures to
Functions
• When you pass a member of a structure to a function, you are actually passing
the value of that member to the function.
• For example, consider this structure:

struct Example1
{
char x;
int y;
float z;
char s[10];
} ex;

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Passing Entire Structures to Functions
• When a structure is used as an argument to a function, the entire
structure is passed using the standard call-by-value method.
– Any changes made to the contents of the structure inside the
function do not affect the structure used as an argument

• When using a structure as a parameter, remember that the type of

the argument must match the type of the parameter.
• For example, in the following program both the argument arg and
the parameter parm are declared as the same type of structure..

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 Passing Entire …. Example
/* Define a structure type. */
struct struct_type {
int a, b;
char ch;
};
void f1(struct struct_type parm);
int main(void)
{
struct_type arg;
arg.a = 1000;
f1(arg);
return 0;
}
void f1(struct struct_type parm)
{
cout<<parm.a;
}
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 Structure Pointers
• C/C++ allows pointers to structures just as it allows pointers to any
other type of variable.
• Structure pointers are declared by placing * in front of a structure
variable's name.
• For example, assuming the previously defined structure
StudentRecord, the following declares studptr as a pointer to
data of that type:
struct StudentRecord *studptr;

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 Using Structure Pointers
• There are two primary uses for structure pointers:
– To pass a structure to a function using call by reference,
– To create linked lists and other dynamic data structures that rely
on dynamic allocation.
• When a pointer to a structure is passed to a function, only the
address of the structure is pushed on the stack.
• Advantages:
– For very fast function calls.
– When a function needs to reference the actual structure used as
the argument, instead of a copy.
• By passing a pointer, the function can modify the contents of the
structure used in the call.

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Address of Structure Variable
• To find the address of a structure variable, place the & operator
before the structure's name.
• For example, given the following fragment:
struct bal {
float balance;
char name[80];
} person;
struct bal *p; /* declare a structure pointer */
then
p = &person;
– places the address of the structure person into the pointer p.

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 Access The Members of A
Structure using Pointer
• To access the members of a structure using a pointer, you must use
the −> operator.
• For example, this references the balance field:

p->balance
• The−>is usually called the arrow operator, and consists of the
minus sign followed by a greater-than sign.
• The arrow is used in place of the dot operator when you are
accessing a structure member through a pointer to the structure.

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 Example

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 Assignment

• Reading assignment
– Enumeration user define data type

• Assignment type individual assignment

• Write a report on file in C++

– What it is.
– How to create it.
– Types of accessing file
– Write a program that best how file works

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