Structures

What is a structure

If you start programming code in C++ you'll sooner or later be facing a situation in which you'll need to store coherent data in a structured way. This is where structures come in place...

A structure is basically a user-defined datatype which consists of other datatypes like int, char, etc. ...

Defining a structure

//This is how you'll usually define a structure    
using namespace std;
struct MyOwnStructure { // keyword "struct" followed by a name, followed by braces containing the datatypes you like, followed by a semicolon
    int property_one;
    int property_two;
    char property_three;
    bool property_four;
    //...
};

Using a structure

int main (void) {
    MyOwnStructure demo1; //Declare demo1 of type MyOwnStructure
    MyOwnStructure demo2; //Declare demo2 of type MyOwnStructure

    //set demo1's with values
    demo1.property_one = 1;
    demo1.property_two = 2;
    demo1.property_three = 'a';
    demo1.property_four = false;

    //set demo2's values
    demo2.property_one = 3;
    demo2.property_two = 4;
    demo2.property_three = 'b';
    demo2.property_four = true;

    cout << "Demo1: " << demo1.property_one << demo1.property_two << demo1.property_three << demo1.property_four << endl;
    cout << "Demo2: " << demo2.property_one << demo2.property_two << demo2.property_three << demo2.property_four << endl;
    /*
    Will output
    Demo1: 12a0
    Demo2: 34b1
    */
    return 0;
}

Exercise

• Create a structure named "person" with the following fields
• name (should be string)
• age (should be int)
• do_programming (should be bool)
• declare two objects "p1" and "p2" of your structure's datatype
• set the values for "p1" as follows:
  • name: alice
  • age: 20
  • do_programming: true
• set the values for "p2" as follows:
  • name: bob
  • age: 18
  • do_programming: false
• "cout" their informations in the scheme "name (age)" => e.g. tim (23) by getting the values from your structure-objects