returning a pointer of a struct of a struct array...

Greetings,

I am a bit new at programming and am working on a project for my own amusement. The problem is I have created a structure and I want to make an array of the structure, but do it in a fuction in such a way that I can create the elements at declaration then be able to use that information in main.

So I decided to try to use a pointer to the struct and return that to a declared pointer in main - I wasn't sure how else to do this.
Anyway - here's what I have. Any help would be appreciated!

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>

typedef struct nountypes
{
        char n[15];
}nouns;
 
nouns* defNouns();

int main(void)
{
        nouns *nWords;

        *nWords = defNouns();       
}

nouns* defNouns()
{
        nouns *nWordsptr;
        nouns nWords[] = {"sun", "ship", "darknes"};

        *nWordsptr = nWords[0];

        return *nWordsptr;
}

---

Trying to compile this I get 2 'incompatible type' errors.

You shouldn't return the address of a non-static variable that is local to the function you're in (which is what you're trying to do).

You have these choices
- make the nWords array static
- make the memory allocation for nWords dynamic (use malloc to create it)
- make the nWords array a global variable instead, and forget the defNouns function altogther.

Here's a static example.

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
 
 typedef struct  nountypes
 {
  char  n[15];
 } nouns;
 
 nouns *defNouns(void);
 
 int main(void)
 {
  nouns *nWords;
  int  i;
 
  nWords = defNouns();
 
  for (i = 0; nWords[i].n[0] != '\0'; i++)
  {
    puts (nWords[i].n);
  }
 
  return 0;
 }
 
 nouns *defNouns(void)
 {
  static nouns  nWords[] = {{{"sun"}}, {{"ship"}}, {{"darknes"}}, {{""}}};
  return(nWords);
 }

---

And here's a global version

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>
 
 typedef struct  nountypes
 {
  char  n[15];
 } nouns;
 
 #define NWORDS_COUNT 3
 nouns  nWords[NWORDS_COUNT] = {{{"sun"}}, {{"ship"}}, {{"darknes"}}};
 
 int main(void)
 {
  int  i;
 
  for (i = 0; i < NWORDS_COUNT; i++)
  {
        puts (nWords[i].n);
  }
 
  return 0;
 }

---

If you're up for a malloc version, ask and I'll post one (or someone will probably beat me to it ;) )

I've also shown you two different ways of determining the number of elements in the array. The first code used a zero length string in the structure of the last element of the array. The second code used a #define to hard code the number of elements.