Thread: problem with pointer to struct

Hi, I'm new to C, I've only used C++ before. I have this problem with pointers to struct. This seems really elementary but I just can't find the solution.
It compiles all right, but causes segmentation fault. Here's the code:

Code:

typedef struct {
  int inumber;
  float fnumber;
} the_type;

int main() {
  the_type* N;
  N->inumber = 16; //this line causes segmentation fault - why?

  return 0;
}

You have a pointer to a the_type object. You DO NOT have an actual object -- just a pointer. What does that pointer point to? It points to some random location. You need to assign N to point to a valid object. For instance:

Code:

the_type* N;
the_type O;
N = &O;

// or...
the_type* N = malloc(sizeof(the_type));

Thank you.