question about array of structs...

if i have a struct like this...

Code:

---

typedef struct student_profile{
        long long int stud_num;
        char name[50];
        char bday[50];
        char course[50];
        } STUDENT;

---

then i have an array of the given struct above...

Code:

---

STUDENT array[20];

---

how could i tell if the slot in the array is free or not [null or not]? [for finding free slots in the array & for stopping when displaying all the data in the array]...
will this work?

Code:

---

for(i = 0; i < 20; i++)
{
        if(array[i].stud_num == NULL)
        {
                free = i;
                break;
        }
}

---

and then assign like "array[free].name, etc..."?
thanks in advance!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Huskar

how could i tell if the slot in the array is free or not [null or not]?

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Use another variable to keep track of the number of elements in use. Make sure that the number of elements in use never exceeds the size of the array.

By the way, avoid using free as a variable name. free is the name of a commonly used function in the C standard library, available by including <stdlib.h>.

You could assign a zero to the student number, indicating that the record was unused.