4.3 Applications of Structures

When to use a structure Structures as parameters

When to use a structure

Structures, simply put, are a way to organize a collection of values. Considering the various other ways to organize data (ex. arrays), when should a structure be used?

Generally, use a structure if you:

Are grouping multiple different data types together

Have a small memory footprint

Have fields which would only be initialized to their default values (for example, all Boolean types are initialized to false and all numeric types are initialized to 0 .

These conditions become more important when identifying the difference between a structure and a class, as they are extremely similar!

Structures as parameters

If you would like to pass a structure into a method as a parameter, you cannot simply pass the entire object.

The following code will throw an error:


struct class{
	// String variable
	char title[50];
}

void useClass(struct class) {
	// Use your struct
	return;
}

int main() {
	struct class biology;
	useClass(biology);
	// Will throw an error
}

Instead, you must use a reference to pass the struct so that the method can access and modify the values within it. This can be done by passing a pointer into a function:


struct book{
	// Properties of struct
	char title[50];
	int bookID;
}

void useBook(struct book *c) {
	// Use your struct here
	return;
}

int main() {
	// Initialize class
	struct book biology;
	book.bookID = 120;

	struct book *biologyptr = &biology;

	// Pass pointer into parameter
	useBook(biologyptr);
}

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4.2 Structure Syntax

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Ch. 5 Searching and Sorting Algorithms

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