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Structures and Unions in C

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Structures

Compound data:

A date is

an int month and

an int day and

an int year

struct ADate {int month;

int day;

int year;

};

struct ADate date;

date.month = 9;

date.day = 1;

date.year = 2005;

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Structure Representation & Size

sizeof(struct ) =sum ofsizeof(field)

+ alignment paddingProcessor- and compiler-specific

6261 EF BE AD DE

c1 c2 ipadding

struct CharCharInt {

char c1;

char c2;

int i;

} foo;

foo.c1 = a;

foo.c2 = b;

foo.i = 0xDEADBEEF;

x86 uses little-endian representation

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Arrays of Structures

#define NFRIENDS 10#define TRUE 1

#define FALSE 0

typedef int bool;

Date birthdays[NFRIENDS];

bool

check_birthday(Date today)

{

int i;

for (i = 0; i < NFRIENDS; i++) {

if ((today.month == birthdays[i].month) &&

(today.day == birthdays[i].day))return (true);

}

return FALSE;

}

Constant

Arra

y declaration

Array index, thenstructure field

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Pointers to Structures

Datecreate_date1(int month,

int day,

int year)

{

Date d;

d.month = month;

d.day = day;

d.year = year;

return (d);}

voidcreate_date2(Date *d,

int month,

int day,

int year)

{

d->month = month;

d->day = day;

d->year = year;

}

Copies date

Pass-by-reference

Date today;

today = create_date1(9, 4, 2008);

create_date2(&today, 9, 4, 2008);

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Pointers to Structures (cont.)

void

create_date2(Date *d,

int month,

int day,

int year)

{

d->month = month;d->day = day;

d->year = year;

}

void

foo(void)

{

Date today;

create_date2(&today, 9, 4, 2008);

}

today.month:

today.day:

today.year:

0x1000

0x1004

0x1008

month: 9

day: 4

year: 2008

0x30A0

0x30A4

0x30A8

d: 0x10000x3098

9

4

2008

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Pointers to Structures (cont.)

Date *create_date3(int month,

int day,

int year)

{

Date *d;

d->month = month;

d->day = day;

d->year = year;

return (d);}

What is d pointing to?!?!

(more on this later)

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Collections of Bools (Bit Vectors)

Byte, word, ... can represent many booleansOne per bit, e.g., 00100101 = false, false, true, ..., true

Bit-wise operations:Bit-wise AND: 00100101 & 10111100 == 00100100

Bit-wise OR: 00100101 | 10111100 == 10111101

Bit-wise NOT: ~ 00100101 == 11011010

Bit-wise XOR: 00100101 ^ 10111100 == 10011001

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Operations on Bit Vectors

const unsigned int low_three_bits_mask = 0x7;

unsigned int bit_vec = 0x15;

000 0111

001 0101

Always use Cs unsignedtypes for bit vectorsAmaskindicates which bit positions we are interested in

000 0101 == 001 0101 & 000 0111

important_bits = bit_vec & low_three_bits_mask;

Selecting bits:

Result =?

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Operations on Bit Vectors

const unsigned int low_three_bits_mask = 0x7;

unsigned int bit_vec = 0x15;

000 0111

001 0101

bit_vec |= low_three_bits_mask;

Setting bits:

Result =?

001 0111 == 001 0101 | 000 0111

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Operations on Bit Vectors

const unsigned int low_three_bits_mask = 0x7;

unsigned int bit_vec = 0x15;

000 0111

001 0101

bit_vec &= ~low_three_bits_mask;

Clearing bits:

Result =?

001 0000 == 001 0101 & ~000 0111

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Bit-field Structures

Special syntax packsstructure values moretightly

Similar to bit vectors, but

arguably easier to read Nonetheless, bit vectors

are more commonlyused.

Padded to be an integralnumber of words

Placement is compiler-specific.

1 1 0 1 1 0 f1 f2 f3

struct Flags {

int f1:3;

unsigned int f2:1;

unsigned int f3:2;

} foo;

foo.f1 = -2;

foo.f2 = 1;

foo.f3 = 2;

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Unions

A union is a special data typeavailable in C that enables you tostore different data types in the same

memory location.You can define a union with manymembers, but only one member can

contain a value at any given time.Unions provide an efficient way ofusing the same memory location formulti-purpose.

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Unions

Choices:

An element is

an int i or

a char c

sizeof(union ) =

maximum ofsizeof(field)

EF BE AD DEc

i

padding

union AnElt {

int i;

char c;

} elt1, elt2;

elt1.i = 4;

elt2.c = a;

elt2.i = 0xDEADBEEF;

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Unions

A union value doesnt know which case itcontains

union AnElt {

int i;

char c;} elt1, elt2;

elt1.i = 4;

elt2.c = a;

elt2.i = 0xDEADBEEF;

if (elt1 currently has a char)

How should your program keep trackwhether elt1, elt2 hold an int or

a char?

?

?Basic answer: Another variable holds

that info

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Tagged Unions

Tag every value with its case

I.e., pair the type info together with the unionImplicit in Java, Scheme, ML,

Enum must be external to struct,

so constants are globally visible.

Struct field must be named.

enum Union_Tag {IS_INT, IS_CHAR};

struct TaggedUnion {

enum Union_Tag tag;

union {

int i;

char c;

} data;

};

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Next Time

Memory Allocation