Thread: returning pointers to structures

whipped up some code... there are probably typos and stuff but you'll get the general idea of simple pointer manipution, how to create new objects and setting struct attributes

Code:

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

struct astruct
{
     int attribute;
     char another_attribute;
     astruct *next;
};

//Function prototype:  function will accept an astruct pointer and will return an astruct pointer
astruct* set_attributes(astruct*);

int main()
{
     //Create a variable that will hold the memory address of a "astruct" object
     astruct *my_struct;

     //Create a new object in memory, and assign its location into a pointer variable
     my_struct = new astruct;

     //Who knows what kind of garbage data these variables might contain     
     cout << "\n\nHere is the unititialized struct: " << endl;
     cout << my_struct->attribute << endl;
     cout << my_struct->another_attribute << endl;
     cout << my_struct->next << endl;
      
     //Pass in the my_struct pointer and have my_struct accept the function's return pointer
     my_struct = set_attributes(my_struct);

     cout << "\n\nHere is the struct after being intialized: " << endl;
     cout << my_struct->attribute << endl;
     cout << my_struct->another_attribute << endl;
     cout << my_struct->next << endl;

     return 0;
}



//Function Definition(s)

astruct* set_attributes(astruct* temp_struct)
{
     temp_struct->attribute = 42;

     temp_struct->another_attribute = 'K';

     temp_struct->next = new astruct;

     return temp_struct;
}