Chapter 14. STRUCTURES AND OTHER DATA FORMS

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You will learn about the following in this chapter:

keywords
```
 struct, union, typedef 
```
Operators
```
 -> 
```

In this chapter, you learn what C structures are and how to create structure templates and variables . Then you learn how to access the members of a structure and how to write functions to handle structures. A short look at C's typedef facility and at unions and pointers to functions concludes the chapter.

One of the most important steps in designing a program is choosing a good way to represent the data. In many cases, a simple variable or even an array is not enough. C takes your ability to represent data a step further with the C structure variables . The C structure is flexible enough in its basic form to represent a diversity of data, and it enables you to invent new forms. If you are familiar with the "records" of Pascal, you should be comfortable with structures. If not, this chapter will introduce you to C structures. Let's study a concrete example to see why a C structure might be needed and how to create and use one.

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