CS141 Programming Fundamentals: C++ Structs

Records (Structs)

• A struct is a structured data type in C++ that groups items of different types, offering several advantages, such as passing multiple components as parameters to a function.
• The general syntax of a struct in C++ is: struct structName { dataType1 identifier1; dataType2 identifier2; ... dataTypeN identifierN; };
• A struct is a definition, not a declaration, which means it defines a data type but does not allocate memory.

Defining a Struct

• A struct can be defined with multiple members of different types, such as string, double, char, and int.
• Example of defining a struct:

struct employeeType {
  string firstName;
  string lastName;
  string address1;
  string address2;
  double salary;
  string deptID;
};

Declaring Struct Variables

• Struct variables can be declared separately from the struct definition, such as studentType newStudent; and studentType student;.
• Struct variables can also be declared when defining the struct, such as struct studentType { ... } tempStudent;.

Accessing Struct Members

• The syntax for accessing a struct member is structVariableName.memberName.
• The dot (.) is an operator called the member access operator.
• Example of accessing a struct member: newStudent.GPA = 0.0; and newStudent.firstName = "John";.

Assignment Statement

• The assignment statement student = newStudent; is equivalent to assigning each member of newStudent to the corresponding member of student.

Comparison (Relational Operators)

• To compare struct variables, each member must be compared separately, member-wise.
• Example: if (student.firstName == newStudent.firstName && student.lastName == newStudent.lastName) ....

Input/Output

• Aggregate input/output operations are not allowed on a struct variable.
• Data in a struct variable must be read or written one member at a time, such as cin >> newStudent.firstName;.

This quiz covers the basics of structs in C++ programming, including grouping items of different types and passing components as parameters.