V6/usr/doc/ctut/ct5
.NH
Structures
.PP
The main use of structures is to lump together
collections of disparate variable types,
so they can conveniently be treated as a unit.
For example,
if we were writing a compiler or assembler,
we might need for each identifier information like
its name (a character array),
its source line number (an integer),
some type information (a character, perhaps),
and probably a usage count (another integer).
.E1
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
.E2
.PP
We can make a structure out of this quite easily.
We first tell C what the structure will look
like,
that is, what kinds of things it contains;
after that we can actually reserve storage for it,
either in the same statement or separately.
The simplest thing is to define it and allocate
storage all at once:
.E1
struct {
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
} sym;
.E2
.PP
This defines
.UL sym
to be a structure with the specified shape;
.UL id,
.UL line,
.UL type
and
.UL usage
are
.ul
members
of the structure.
The way we refer to any particular member of the structure
is
.E1
structure\(hyname \*. member
.E2
as in
.E1
sym\*.type = 077;
if( sym\*.usage \*= 0 ) \*.\*.\*.
while( sym\*.id[j\*+] ) \*.\*.\*.
.ft R
etc\*.
.E2
Although the names of structure members never stand alone,
they still have to be unique _
there can't be another
.UL id
or
.UL usage
in some other structure.
.PP
So far we haven't gained much.
The advantages of structures start to come
when we have arrays of structures,
or when we want to pass complicated data layouts
between functions.
Suppose we wanted to make a symbol table for up
to 100 identifiers.
We could extend our definitions like
.E1
char id[100][10];
int line[100];
char type[100];
int usage[100];
.E2
but a structure lets us
rearrange this spread-out information
so all the data about a single identifer is collected
into one lump:
.E1
struct {
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
} sym[100];
.E2
This makes
.UL sym
an array of structures;
each array element has the specified shape.
Now we can refer to members as
.E1
sym[i]\*.usage\*+; /\** increment usage of i\(hyth identifier \**/
for( j=0; sym[i]\*.id[j\*+] != '\\0'; ) \*.\*.\*.
.ft R
etc\*.
.E2
Thus to print a list of all identifiers that haven't been used,
together with their line number,
.E1
for( i=0; i<nsym; i\*+ )
if( sym[i]\*.usage \*= 0 )
printf("%d\\t%s\\n", sym[i]\*.line, sym[i]\*.id);
.E2
.PP
Suppose we now want to write a function
.UL lookup(name)
which will tell us if
.UL name
already exists in
.UL sym,
by giving its index, or that it doesn't,
by returning a \(mi1.
We can't pass a structure to a function
directly _
we have to either define it externally, or
pass a pointer to it.
Let's try the first way first.
.E1
int nsym 0; /\** current length of symbol table \**/
.SP
struct {
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
} sym[100]; /\** symbol table \**/
.SP
main( ) {
\*.\*.\*.
if( (index = lookup(newname)) >= 0 )
sym[index]\*.usage\*+; /\** already there \*.\*.\*. \**/
else
install(newname, newline, newtype);
\*.\*.\*.
}
.SP
lookup(s)
char \**s; {
int i;
extern struct {
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
} sym[ ];
.SP
for( i=0; i<nsym; i\*+ )
if( compar(s, sym[i]\*.id) > 0 )
return(i);
return(-1);
}
compar(s1,s2) /\** return 1 if s1\*=s2, 0 otherwise \**/
char \**s1, \**s2; {
while( \**s1\*+ \*= \**s2 )
if( \**s2\*+ \*= '\\0' )
return(1);
return(0);
}
.E2
The declaration of the structure in
.UL lookup
isn't needed if the external definition precedes its use in the same source file,
as we shall see in a moment.
.PP
Now what if we want to use pointers?
.E1
struct symtag {
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
} sym[100], \**psym;
psym = &sym[0]; /\** or p = sym; \**/
.E2
This makes
.UL psym
a pointer to our kind of structure
(the symbol table),
then initializes it to point to the first element of
.UL sym\*.
.PP
Notice that we added something after the word
.UL struct:
a ``tag'' called
.UL symtag\*.
This puts a name on our structure definition so we can
refer to it later without repeating the definition.
It's not necessary but useful.
In fact we could have said
.E1
struct symtag {
\*.\*.\*. structure definition
};
.E2
which wouldn't have assigned any storage at all,
and then said
.E1
struct symtag sym[100];
struct symtag \**psym;
.E2
which would define the array and the pointer.
This could be condensed further, to
.E1
struct symtag sym[100], \**psym;
.E2
.PP
The way we actually refer to an member of a structure by a pointer
is like this:
.E1
ptr -> structure\(hymember
.E2
The symbol `\(mi>'
means we're pointing at a member of a structure;
`\(mi>' is only used in that context.
.UL ptr
is a pointer to the (base of) a structure
that contains the structure member.
The expression
.UL "ptr\(mi>structure\(hymember"
refers to the indicated member of the pointed-to structure.
Thus we have constructions like:
.E1
psym->type = 1;
psym->id[0] = 'a';
.E2
and so on.
.PP
For more complicated pointer expressions,
it's wise to use parentheses to make it clear
who goes with what.
For example,
.E1
struct { int x, \**y; } \**p;
p->x\*+ increments x
\*+p->x so does this!
(\*+p)->x increments p before getting x
\**p->y\*+ uses y as a pointer, then increments it
\**(p->y)\*+ so does this
\**(p\*+)->y uses y as a pointer, then increments p
.E2
.tr |.
The way to remember these is that
.UL \(mi>,
.UL |
(dot),
.UL "( )"
and
.UL "[ ]"
bind very tightly.
An expression involving one of these is treated as a unit.
.tr ||
.UL p\(mi>x,
.UL a[i],
.UL y\*.x
and
.UL f(b)
are names
exactly as
.UL abc
is.
.PP
If
.UL p
is a pointer to a structure,
any arithmetic on
.UL p
takes into account the acutal size of the structure.
For instance,
.UL p\*+
increments
.UL p
by the correct amount to get the next element of the array of structures.
But don't assume that the size of a structure is the sum
of the sizes of its members _
because of alignments of different sized objects,
there may be ``holes'' in a structure.
.PP
Enough theory. Here is the lookup example, this time with pointers.
.E1
struct symtag {
char id[10];
int line;
char type;
int usage;
} sym[100];
.SP
main( ) {
struct symtag \**lookup( );
struct symtag \**psym;
\*.\*.\*.
if( (psym = lookup(newname)) ) /\** non-zero pointer \**/
psym -> usage\*+; /\** means already there \**/
else
install(newname, newline, newtype);
\*.\*.\*.
}
.SP
struct symtag \**lookup(s)
char \**s; {
struct symtag \**p;
for( p=sym; p < &sym[nsym]; p\*+ )
if( compar(s, p->id) > 0)
return(p);
return(0);
}
.E2
The function
.UL compar
doesn't change:
.UL `p\(mi>id'
refers to
a string.
.PP
In
.UL main
we test the pointer returned by
.UL lookup
against zero,
relying on the fact that a pointer is by definition never zero
when it really points at something.
The other pointer manipulations are trivial.
.PP
The only complexity is the set of lines like
.E1
struct symtag \**lookup( );
.E2
This brings us to
an area that we will
treat only hurriedly _ the question of function types.
So far, all of our functions have returned integers
(or characters, which are much the same).
What do we do when the function returns something else,
like a pointer to a structure?
The rule is that
any function that doesn't return an
.UL int
has to say explicitly what it does return.
The type information goes before the function name
(which can make the name hard to see).
Examples:
.E1
char f(a)
int a; {
\*.\*.\*.
}
int \**g( ) { \*.\*.\*. }
struct symtag \**lookup(s) char \**s; { \*.\*.\*. }
.E2
The function
.UL f
returns a character,
.UL g
returns a pointer to an integer,
and
.UL lookup
returns a pointer to a structure that looks like
.UL symtag\*.
And if we're going to use one of these functions,
we have to make a declaration
where we use it,
as we did in
.UL main
above.
.PP
Notice th parallelism between the declarations
.E1
struct symtag \**lookup( );
struct symtag \**psym;
.E2
In effect, this says that
.UL lookup(~)
and
.UL psym
are both used the same way _
as a pointer to a strcture _
even though one is a variable and the other is a function.