Learn Structures in C++ Programming

Lecture 12
Structures
1
COMP102 Prog. Fundamentals, Structures / Slide 2
Contents
 Objectives
 Structures Basics
 Initialization
 Accessing data members
 Structure to structure assignment
 Examples
2
Objectives
 Why do we need structures?
 Store data using simple variables; but how many variables
we can use?
 Arrays can solve this issue.
 Although, arrays greatly improved our ability to store data,
each element in an array must be of the same type.
 Sometimes, need to store data of different data types. We
use structures:
 Structure is a collection of variables of different data types under a
single name.
 Used different types of variables, can create our own type
3
Problems without structures
4
Structures
 Structures can be looked as a way to provide user-defined data types.
 A Structure is a collection of simple variables of different types.
 The data items in a structure are called the members of the structure.
 A structure in C++ is very much a class, although it may not fulfill some
properties associated with classes.
 Structure is a collection of data while class contains data & functions
 A structure type in C++ is defined by keyword struct.
 A struct is heterogeneous in that it consists of data of different data
types.
 In contrast, array is homogeneous since it can contain only data of the
same data type.
5
Structures
 Structures hold data that belong to each other.
 Examples:
 Student record: student id, name, major, gender,
start year, …
 Bank account: account number, name, currency,
balance, …
 Address book: name, address, telephone
number, …
 In database applications, structures are called
records.
6
Structures
 Individual components of a struct type are called members.
 Members can be of different types (simple, array or struct).
 A struct is named as a whole while individual members are
named using identifiers.
 Members defined in structure are just a blueprint for the creation
of variables.
 They don’t occupy any memory unless they are used & assigned some
value. This is against simple variable declarations.
 However, definition of structure variable reserves
enough space to hold all the members of structure ac
 cording to data types of members.
7
Structure Basics
 We can declare an object of type structure in same
way as we declare variables of some data type: i.e.
 Student first_student;
 The declarations of the structure are enclosed in
braces.
 A semicolon follows the closing brace, terminating the
entire structure.
struct <struct-type>{
<type> <identifier_list>; Each identifier
<type> <identifier_list>; defines a member
... of the structure.
} ;
8
Structure’s Function
 A structure defines
 Structure name
 Structure variable
 It assigns values to its members
 It displays the values stored.
9
Structure Examples
 Example:
struct StudentInfo{
int Id; The “StudentInfo”
int age;
char Gender; structure has 4 members
double CGA; of different types.
};
 Example:
struct StudentGrade{
char Name[15];
char Course[9]; The “StudentGrade”
int Lab[5]; structure has 5
int Homework[3];
int Exam[2];
members of
}; different array types.
10
Structure Examples
 Example:
struct BankAccount{
char Name[15]; The “BankAcount”
int AcountNo[10]; structure has simple,
double balance; array and structure
Date Birthday;
}; types as members.
 Example:
struct StudentRecord{
char Name[15]; The “StudentRecord”
int Id; structure has 4
char Dept[5];
char Gender; members.
};
11
Steps to create structures
12
Declaration
 Most efficient method of dealing with structure
variables is to define structure globally
13
Structure Declaration
 Declaration of a variable of struct type:
<struct-type> <identifier_list>;
 Example:
StudentRecord Student1, Student2;
Student1 and Student2 are variables of StudentRecord type.
Name Name
Student1 Student2
Id Gender Id Gender
Dept Dept
14
Structure Initialization-1
struct part //declare a structure
{
int modelnumber; //ID number
int partnumber; //ID number
float cost; //cost of part
};
int main()
{
part part1; //define a structure variable
part1.modelnumber = 6244; //give values to structure members
part1.partnumber = 373;
part1.cost = 217.55F;
//display structure members
cout << “Model “ << part1.modelnumber;
cout << “, part “ << part1.partnumber;
cout << “, costs $” << part1.cost << endl;
return 0; 15
}
2nd Way of Initialization
16
17
Accessing Data Members

 The first statement in main() is part part1;
 It defines a variable, called part1, of type structure part.
 This definition reserves space in memory for part1. How much
space?
 Enough to hold all the members of part1. In this case there will be 4 bytes for
each of the two ints (assuming a 32-bit system), and 4 bytes for the float.
18
Accessing Data Members

 The members of a struct type variable are accessed with the member access or dot (.) operator:
<struct-variable>.<member_name>;
 Example:
strcpy(Student1.Name, “Abc");
Student1.Id = 12345;
Student1
strcpy(Student1.Dept, "COMP");
Student1.gender = 'M';
cout << "The student is ";
switch (Student1.gender){
case 'F': cout << "Ms. "; break;
case 'M': cout << "Mr. "; break; Name
}
cout << Student1.Name << endl;
Id Gender
Dept
Abc
12345 M
COMP
19
Ex. 2: struct-to-struct assignment

 The values contained in one struct type variable can be assigned to another
variable of the same struct type.
 Example: Student1
strcpy(Student1.Name,
"Chan Tai Man");
Student1.Id = 12345; Chan Tai Man
strcpy(Student1.Dept, "COMP");
Student1.gender = 'M';
12345 M
Student2 = Student1;
COMP
Chan Tai Man
12345 M
Student2
COMP 20
Example: Volume of Box

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
// Structure to represent a box

struct Box
{
double length;
double breadth;
double height;
};
// Prototype of function to calculate the volume of a box

double volume(Box& aBox); // & is used due to array
int main()
{
Box firstBox = { 80.0, 50.0, 40.0 };
// Calculate the volume of the box

double firstBoxVolume = volume(firstBox);
cout << endl;
cout << "Size of first Box object is "
<< firstBox.length << " by "
<< firstBox.breadth << " by "
<< firstBox.height
<< endl;
cout << "Volume of first Box object is " << firstBoxVolume
<< endl;
Box secondBox = firstBox; // Create a second Box object the

same as firstBox
// Increase the dimensions of second Box object by 10%
secondBox.length *= 1.1;
secondBox.breadth *= 1.1;
secondBox.height *= 1.1;
// Program 11.1 Using a Box structure……….continued-2

cout << "Size of second Box object is "
<< secondBox.length << " by "
<< secondBox.breadth << " by "
<< secondBox.height
<< endl;
cout << "Volume of second box object is " << volume(secondBox)
<< endl;
cout << "Increasing the box dimensions by 10% has increased the volume by "
<<
static_cast<long>((volume(secondBox)-firstBoxVolume)*100.0/firstBoxVolume)
<< "%"
<< endl;
return 0;
}
// Function to calculate the volume of a box
double volume(Box& aBox)
{
return aBox.length * aBox.breadth * aBox.height;
}
Member functions of a Structure

 In C++, it is possible to declare functions within a structure
which are also members of the structure just like the data
members.
 These functions are called member functions of the structure.
 Therefore continuing our example, in the student structure we
can declare member functions displayStudent ().
Struct Student
{
Char name[20];
Int age;
Double gpa;
// now lets have a member function
Void displayStudent( )
{
Cout << “Student Name : “ << name <<endl;
Cout << “Student Age : “ << age <<endl;
Cout << “Student GPA : “ <<gpa <<endl;
}
}
Member functions of a Structure

 Now we can use this member function of the structure
using the dot operator just like we were using the data
members.
 It is also possible to just declare the member function
within the structure and define the function separately
outside the structure.
 However when we provide the function definition we
must specify that the function which is being defined is
member of which structure. For this purpose we use
scope resolution operator :: .
 Therefore the function defintion would be like:
 Void student::displayStudent ( ) {………..; }
Nested Structures
26
Nested Structures
27
Arrays of structures
 An ordinary array: One type of data
0 1 2 … 98 99
 An array of structs: Multiple types of data in each

array element.
0 1 2 … 98 99
28
Arrays of structures
 We often use arrays of structures.
 Example:
StudentRecord Class[100];
strcpy(Class[98].Name, "Chan Tai Man");
Class[98].Id = 12345;
strcpy(Class[98].Dept, "COMP");
Class[98].gender = 'M';
Class[0] = Class[98]; Chan Tai Man
12345 M
COMP
...
0 1 2 … 98 99 29
Program Output
30
Remove Errors
31
Unions
 Union is a data type which allows you to use same block of
memory to store values of different types at different times.
 The syntax is:
union weight
{
int paisas;
double rupees;
};
 We can declare a variable of type union just like we did for
structures. Similarly data members of the union are
accessed using the dot operator.
 The major difference is that at any given point in time only
one of the data members of the union can have a value.
Enumeration
 An enumeration is a user-defined data type that consists of
integral constants.
 It enables you to create a new data type that has a fixed
range of possible values, and the variable can select one
value from the set of values.
 e.g., selecting only one flavor of ice cream in a shop.
 Enumerated types work when you know in advance a finite
short list of values that a data type can take on.
 An enum declaration defines the set of all names that
will be permissible values of the type.
 enum days_of_week { Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat };
33
 These permissible values are called enumerators.

 The enum type days_of_week has seven enumerators:
Sun, Mon, Tue, and so on, up to Sat.
 This feature of C++ is less crucial than structures.
 You can write perfectly good object-oriented programs in C++
without knowing anything about enumerations.
#include <iostream> day1 = Mon; //give values to

using namespace std; day2 = Thu; //variables
//specify enum type int diff = day2 - day1; //can do integer
enum days_of_week { Sun, Mon, Tue, arithmetic
Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat }; cout << “Days between = “ << diff << endl;
int main() if(day1 < day2) //can do comparisons
{ cout << “day1 comes before day2\n”;
days_of_week day1, day2; //define return 0;
variables of type days_of_week } 34
 Variables of an enumerated type, like day1 and

day2, can be given any of the values listed in the
enum declaration.
 In the example, we give them the values Mon and
Thu. You can’t use values that weren’t listed in the
declaration. Such statements as
 day1 = halloween;
 are illegal.
35
Example
 An enum variable takes only one value out of many possible
values.
#include <iostream>
enum week { Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

Saturday };
int main()
{
week today;
today = Wednesday;
cout << "Day " << today+1;
return 0;
}
Output :
Day 4 36
Example
 An enum variable takes only one value out of many possible
values.
#include <iostream>
enum suit {
club = 0,
diamonds = 10,
hearts = 20, Output:
spades = 3
} card; Size of enum variable 4 bytes.
int main()
{
card = club;
cout << "Size of enum variable " << sizeof(card) << " bytes.";
return 0; 37
}

Learn Structures in C++ Programming

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Lecture 12

Problems without structures

Steps to create structures

Student1 and Student2 are variables of StudentRecord type.

2nd Way of Initialization

Accessing Data Members

Accessing Data Members

Ex. 2: struct-to-struct assignment

Chan Tai Man

Example: Volume of Box

// Structure to represent a box

// Prototype of function to calculate the volume of a box

// Calculate the volume of the box

Box secondBox = firstBox; // Create a second Box object the

// Program 11.1 Using a Box structure……….continued-2

Member functions of a Structure

Member functions of a Structure

 An array of structs: Multiple types of data in each

 These permissible values are called enumerators.

#include <iostream> day1 = Mon; //give values to

 Variables of an enumerated type, like day1 and

enum week { Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

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