Chapter Three

Structures
 Records
• Aggregates of several items of possibly different
types that represent related information called
RECORD
• E.g
– Student Record:
• Name a string
• HW Grades an array of 3 doubles
• Test Grades an array of 2 doubles
• Final Average a double
– Bank Record:
• Customer Name
• Account Balance
• Amount
 Records
– Arrays
• Recall that elements of arrays must all be of the
same type

scores
scores:: 85
85 79
79 92
92 57
57 68
68 80
80 ......
0 1 2 3 4 5 98 99
– In some situations, we wish to group elements
of different types

employee
employee R.
R.Jones
Jones 123
123Elm
Elm 6/12/55
6/12/55 $14.75
$14.75
 Structures
• A Structure is a container, it can hold a bunch of
things.
– These things can be of any type.
• Structures are used to organize related data
(variables) in to a nice neat package.
• C++ provides a way to collect similar variables
into a single structure
– using C++ ‘struct’ keyword
• A structure definition is a user-defined variable
type
• you can create variables from it just like you
would any other type
 struct in C++
• Before creating a structure variable you must
create a structure definition
tag
• Syntax
struct structname
{
datatype1 variable1; Members
datatype2 variable2;
};
• This is simply a data blue print
• Each thing in a structure is called member.
• Each member has a name, a type - Names
follow the rules for variable names.
• Types can be any defined type
• Example struct student
{
int id;
char name[15];
};
• You can’t initialize members in struct definition
• E.g.
– struct date{
int day = 24, month = 10, year = 2001;
}; //this is wrong
 Declaring and using structs
• By defining a structure you create a new
data type.
• Once you have defined a structure you
can create a variable from it just as you
would any other variable
• E.g
student std1;
date birthday;
 Initializing a structure
• student std1={"Ababe", "Scr/2222/22"};
– you can assign fewer values than there are
member variables
– try to assign more values than are member
variables, you will get a compiler error
 Accessing Members
• You can treat the members of a struct just like variables.
• Use the name of the record
the name of the member
separated by a dot
• You need to use the member access operator '.'
(pronounced "dot"):
• E.g
cout << stu.name << endl;
stu.id = 100;
stu.name= “dawit”;
StudentRecord s1,s2;
s1.name = "Joe Student";
…
s2 = s1; Copies the entire structure
#include<iostream.h> cin>>s2.id;
#include<conio.h> cout<<"\nEnter Name";
struct student cin>>s2.name;
{ cout<<"\nStudents
Information";
int id;
cout<<"\n Student id\t
char name[15]; Student Name";
}; cout<<endl<<s1.id<<"\
void main() t"<<s1.name;
{ cout<<endl<<s2.id<<"\
//creating three student t"<<s2.name;
variables getch();
student s1,s2; }
cout<<"\n Enter Student
Id";
cin>>s1.id;
cout<<"\nEnter Name";
cin>>s1.name;
cout<<"\n Enter Student Id";
 Aggregate Operations with
Structures

• Limitations on aggregate operations

– no I/O cout
cout <<
<< s1;
s1;
cin
cin >>
>> s1;
s1;
– no arithmetic operations

old_part
old_part == s1
s1 ++ s2;
s2;

– no comparisons
if
if (s1
(s1 << s1)
s1)
cout
cout <<
<< ...;
...;
 Aggregate Operations with
Structures

• struct variables must be compared

member-wise.
 To compare the values of student and
newStudent, you must compare them
member-wise, as follows:

if(student.firstName == newStudent.firstName &&

student.lastName == newStudent.lastName) ...
 Input/Output
• There are no aggregate input/output
operations on struct.
• Data in a struct variable must be
read one member at a time.
• Contents of a struct must be written
one member at a time.
 Array of structs
• What if we have a record of 10 ,20,100
students
– Array of records
• First declare a struct (such as student)
• Then specify an array of that type
– student stud1[50];
• Declares an array of 50 student data type
• We can declare an array of structs
#include<iostream.h> cout<<"\n Displaying student
#include<conio.h> Info";
struct student { cout<<"\nStudent Id \t
int id; Student Name";
cout<<"\
char name[15];
n======================
}; ======";
void main() for( i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
clrscr(); cout<<endl<<s[i].id<<"\t\t\
//creating 10 student using an array t"<<s[i].name;
student s[10]; getch(); }
int i;
for(i=0; i < 10; i ++)
{
cout<<"\n Enter Student Id";
cin>>s[i].id;
cout<<"\nEnter Name";
cin>>s[i].name;
}
 Declaring a struct as a member of
struct
• E.g.
– struct employee {
string name;
string id;
date birthdate;
}emp1,emp2;
– struct date{
int day,month,year;
};
• To access the year that emp1 born
– emp1.birtdate.year
– emp2.birthdate.month // access the month
 Defining a structure in a structure
• struct employee {
string name;
string id;
struct date{
int day,month,year;
}; birthdate;
}emp1,emp2;
– emp1.birtdate.year;
– emp2.birthdate.month;
 Pointers to Structures
• Pointers to structures are used often.
• it affects the way you access the structure
variable’s members
date birth;
date *p = &birth;
*p.year = 1979; =>*(p.year) =1979
• There is another member access operator
used with pointers: ->

student *sptr;
…
cout << "Name is" << sptr->name;
cout << “ID is " << sptr->id;
 Quick Example
struct StudentRecord {
char *name; // student name
double hw[3]; // homework
grades
double test[2]; // test grades
double ave; // final average

void print_ave() {
cout << "Name: " << name << endl;
cout << "Average: " << ave << endl;
}
};
 Using the member function
doubleStudentRecord stu;

… // set values in the structure

stu.print_ave();