Question

I am using visual C++ 6.0 to practice pointer staff, the following is my code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

typedef struct 
{
    char first_name[50];
    char middle_name[50];
    char last_name[50];
    int height;
    int weight;
}people;

int main()
{
    //declare a people structure pointer
    people *ppl_ptr;

    //allocate memory space for people structure
    ppl_ptr = malloc(sizeof(people));

    //check if you run out of the heap
    if(ppl_ptr==NULL)
    {
        printf("Out of memory!\n");
        return 0;
    }

    //initialize the unname people varible 
    (*ppl_ptr)={"bla","bla","bla",192,58};



    return 0;
}

but I got a syntax error:
C:\C Practice\ch14.c(30) : error C2059: syntax error : '{'
Error executing cl.exe.

and if I replace
(*ppl_ptr)={"bla","bla","bla",192,58};

with something like
(*ppl_ptr).first_name="bla";

I will get a different error:

ch14.c
C:\C Practice\ch14.c(30) : error C2106: '=' : left operand must be l-value
Error executing cl.exe.

and this error msg doesn’t really make sense to me … does this ever occur to anyone of you? Please let me know why it is giving me this error msg. Thanks in Advance.

Answer 1

Try accessing the structure properly:

char* bla_str_ptr = "bla";
[...]
strcpy(ppl_ptr->first_name, bla_str_ptr);
strcpy(ppl_ptr->middle_name, bla_str_ptr);
ppl_ptr->height = 123;
[...]

You could also write an initialization function with this signature:

void ppl_init(char* first_name, char* middle_name, [...])