C Language Structs Pointers to structs

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Example

When you have a variable containing a struct, you can access its fields using the dot operator (.). However, if you have a pointer to a struct, this will not work. You have to use the arrow operator (->) to access its fields. Here's an example of a terribly simple (some might say "terrible and simple") implementation of a stack that uses pointers to structs and demonstrates the arrow operator.

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

/* structs */
struct stack
{
    struct node *top;
    int size;
};

struct node
{
    int data;
    struct node *next;
};

/* function declarations */
int push(int, struct stack*);
int pop(struct stack*);
void destroy(struct stack*);

int main(void)
{
    int result = EXIT_SUCCESS;

    size_t i;

    /* allocate memory for a struct stack and record its pointer */
    struct stack *stack = malloc(sizeof *stack);
    if (NULL == stack)
    {
        perror("malloc() failed");
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

    /* initialize stack */
    stack->top = NULL;
    stack->size = 0;

    /* push 10 ints */
    {
        int data = 0;
        for(i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        {
            printf("Pushing: %d\n", data);
            if (-1 == push(data, stack))
            {
                perror("push() failed");
                result = EXIT_FAILURE;
                break;
            }

            ++data;
        }
    }

    if (EXIT_SUCCESS == result)
    {
        /* pop 5 ints */
        for(i = 0; i < 5; i++)
        {
            printf("Popped: %i\n", pop(stack));
        }
    }

    /* destroy stack */
    destroy(stack);

    return result;
}

/* Push a value onto the stack. */
/* Returns 0 on success and -1 on failure. */
int push(int data, struct stack *stack)
{
    int result = 0;

    /* allocate memory for new node */
    struct node *new_node = malloc(sizeof *new_node);
    if (NULL == new_node)
    {
        result = -1;
    }
    else
    {
        new_node->data = data;
        new_node->next = stack->top;
        stack->top = new_node;
        stack->size++;
    }

    return result;
}

/* Pop a value off of the stack. */
/* Returns the value popped off the stack */
int pop(struct stack *stack)
{
    struct node *top = stack->top;
    int data = top->data;
    stack->top = top->next;
    stack->size--;
    free(top);
    return data;
}

/* destroy the stack */
void destroy(struct stack *stack)
{
    /* free all pointers */
    while(stack->top != NULL)
    {
        pop(stack);
    }
}


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