Declaring and Initializing a Structure in C

In this article, we will discuss how to declare and initialize a structure in C programming language. Structures are used to store data of different types in a single unit.

Declaring a Structure

To declare a structure, we use the `struct` keyword followed by the name of the structure and the members of the structure enclosed in curly brackets.

// Declare a structure
struct Student {
    int roll;
    char name[20];
    float marks;
};

Initializing a Structure

There are two ways to initialize a structure: using the dot operator and using the curly brackets.

Method 1: Using the Dot Operator

In this method, we use the dot operator to access the members of the structure and assign values to them.

// Initialize a structure using the dot operator
struct Student s1;
s1.roll = 1;
strcpy(s1.name, "John");
s1.marks = 85.5;

Method 2: Using Curly Brackets

In this method, we use curly brackets to initialize the members of the structure.

// Initialize a structure using curly brackets
struct Student s2 = {2, "Alice", 90.0};

Example Program

Here is an example program that demonstrates how to declare and initialize a structure in C.

#include 
#include 

// Declare a structure
struct Student {
    int roll;
    char name[20];
    float marks;
};

int main() {
    // Initialize a structure using the dot operator
    struct Student s1;
    s1.roll = 1;
    strcpy(s1.name, "John");
    s1.marks = 85.5;

    // Initialize a structure using curly brackets
    struct Student s2 = {2, "Alice", 90.0};

    // Print the values of the structure members
    printf("Student 1:\n");
    printf("Roll: %d\n", s1.roll);
    printf("Name: %s\n", s1.name);
    printf("Marks: %.2f\n", s1.marks);

    printf("\nStudent 2:\n");
    printf("Roll: %d\n", s2.roll);
    printf("Name: %s\n", s2.name);
    printf("Marks: %.2f\n", s2.marks);

    return 0;
}

Output

When you run the above program, it will output the following:

Student 1:
Roll: 1
Name: John
Marks: 85.50

Student 2:
Roll: 2
Name: Alice
Marks: 90.00

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed how to declare and initialize a structure in C programming language. We also saw an example program that demonstrates how to use structures in a C program.

FAQs

Q: What is a structure in C?

A: A structure is a collection of variables of different data types that are stored together in memory.

Q: How do I declare a structure in C?

A: To declare a structure, use the `struct` keyword followed by the name of the structure and the members of the structure enclosed in curly brackets.

Q: How do I initialize a structure in C?

A: There are two ways to initialize a structure: using the dot operator and using curly brackets.

Q: What is the difference between using the dot operator and curly brackets to initialize a structure?

A: Using the dot operator allows you to initialize the members of the structure one by one, while using curly brackets allows you to initialize all the members of the structure at once.