Thread: what does a structure variable mean?

Hello,

The following is a sample that I've tried...

Code:

struct st
{
     char ch[4];
     int i;
};

int main()
{
     struct st mystruct;
     mystruct.ch[0] = 'A';     // Ascii value 0x41 
     mystruct.ch[1] = 'B';     // Ascii value 0x42
     mystruct.ch[2] = 'C';     // Ascii value 0x43
     mystruct.ch[3] = 'D';     // Ascii value 0x44
     mystruct.i = 97;

     printf("Type 1: 0x%x\n",mystruct);
     printf("Type 2: %c\n",mystruct);
     return 0;
}

And the output is:

Code:

Type 1: 0x44434241
Type 2: A

I've used gcc 3.1 compiler to compile it on Redhat Linux 8.0 (cant change any of them )
My Question
What type will a structure variable assume? As can be seen from above code, if I print the structure variable as an int using %x, it prints the first 4 bytes and if I print it as a character, it prints only the first byte.
So, how is it assuming it all? Or, is it just an Integer and since i've used %c, it is getting type-casted (internally or by printf) and getting printed??