Nested structures in C

When a structure contains another structure as its member, it is called a nested structure.

Syntax:

  struct innerStruct{

     -------------------

     -------------------

};

struct outerStruct{

     -------------------

     -------------------

   struct innerStruct inner;

};

For example, we want to store information about an employee-empName, empNo, dept,address. Address can be broken into houseNo,city,pincode so we will store address details in another structure named Address and other information about employee in Employee structure.

#include<stdio.h>

//Inner structure

struct Address{

  char houseNo[20];

  char city[20];

};

//Outer structure

struct Employee{

  char empName[25];

  char  dept[15];

  struct Address add;

};

int main(){

  struct Employee emp;

  printf("Enter Employee Name: ");

  scanf("%s",&emp.empName);

  printf("Enter Employee Department: ");

  scanf("%s",&emp.dept);

  printf("Enter Employee Address details:\n ");

  printf("Enter Employee House No: ");

  scanf("%s",&emp.add.houseNo);

  printf("Enter Employee City: ");

  scanf("%s",&emp.add.city);

  printf("\nEmployee Details\n");

  printf("Name :%s\n",&emp.empName);

  printf("Department :%s\n",&emp.dept);

  printf("House No :%s\n",&emp.add.houseNo);

  printf("City :%s\n",&emp.add.city);

  return 0;

}

Output:

Note that inner structure must be declared before outer structure.

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 Structure in C
 Typedef in C with examples
 Array of Structures in C with Example
 Self Referential Structures in C
 Passing structure to a function in C with example

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