Thread: returning struct and passing as an argument

Is there anything technically wrong in doing the following

Code:

typedef struct a
{
     /* various data types */
} data;

data getInfo(data in)
{
     /* do stuff with data types one or all */

     return in;
}

int main(void)
{
    data test = getInfo(test);
    /* clean up */
}

If there is a problem, what would rectify the error(s)?

TIA

Did you try to write a simple program with it and compile it? Did it produce any results? You can find out that way.

Originally posted by Mister C
Did you try to write a simple program with it and compile it? Did it produce any results? You can find out that way.

Thanks for the reply Mister C.

Yes, I tried a few things with the function and got the expected results, but I don't know if it's the prefered way of doing things. For example, if I wanted to write the struct to a file.

Code:

int writeF(FILE* out, struct mydata in)
{
    /* write the entire struct to a file */
    /* return status of write */
}

Is there a better way or would that method be ok?

Why not do the same thing with a pointer?

Code:

size_t writeF(FILE* out, struct mydata *in)
{
   return fwrite(in, sizeof(*in), 1, out);
}

Then you don't have to make a copy of the whole structure when you pass it to the function.

Originally posted by Dave_Sinkula
Why not do the same thing with a pointer?

Code:

size_t writeF(FILE* out, struct mydata *in)
{
   return fwrite(in, sizeof(*in), 1, out);
}

Then you don't have to make a copy of the whole structure when you pass it to the function.

Thanks Dave... I'll give it a shot.