I'm trying to wrap my head around the syntax of pointers within structs in C programming. For example, when I declare `struct node *ptr`, it seems to create a pointer `ptr` that points to the whole node structure. But why can't it just be written like a normal pointer, such as `int *ptr = &node`? I'm a bit confused about this. Can anyone clarify?
3 Answers
The syntax you're seeing is still following the general pattern of `type *ptr`, but in this case, the type is `struct node`. It’s a bit different since structs are their own type, unlike basic types like `int` or `char`.
You might want to look into using `typedef` for structs. This allows you to create a type alias for your struct, so you don’t have to keep using the `struct` keyword. However, if you’re dealing with self-referential structs, you still need to specify `struct node` because the type hasn’t fully completed at that point. Remember, the `&` symbol is used to get the address of a variable. In some situations, you won’t need it because you’re directly assigning a value into the memory location the pointer points to, whereas using `*` dereferences the pointer to get the value. Just be cautious with stack-allocated memory to avoid dangling pointers!
Thanks for the clarity!
The main reason it looks different is that you’re declaring a pointer for a struct, which is fundamentally different from declaring a pointer for a basic data type like `int`. So just remember, structs are not the same as simple types in C.
So, essentially, structs act like their own variable types, just like how `int` or `char` functions, right?