Structures

Passing structure to function

There are three methods by which the values of structure can be transferred from one function to another:

1. The first method is to pass each member of the structure as an actual argument of the function call.

The actual argument is then treated independently like ordinary variables.

2. The second methods involve passing of a copy of the entire structure to the called function

Since the function is working on a copy of the entire structure to the called function, changes are not reflected in the original structure (in the calling function).

It is necessary for the entire function to return the entire structure back to the calling function.

3. The third approach employs a concept called pointers to pass the structure as an argument .

In this case, the address location of the structure is passed to the called function.

The function can access indirectly the entire structure and work on it.

The general format of sending a copy of structure to the called function is:

function_name (structure_variable_name)