Introduction

A struct in C++ is a user-defined that can be used to aggregate a set of fields into a single variable. The fields can be the same or different types. They are very useful structures in the C++ language and can often take the place of a class when compared to other languages such as Java.

Defining and Using Structs

By default, structs are public and we define them at the top of our programs before other functions. Here is an example of a struct definition:

struct student{
    string name;
    int grade;
};

Notice in the definition that we use the keyword struct followed by the name and then surround our variable definition inside of curly braces { }. An important thing to note is that you must include the semi-colon (;) after the struct definition.

Once defined, we can then declare a struct just like we would declare any other variable.

student s;

To access and update the fields of the struct, we use the variable name then a dot (.) and the field name. For example:

s.name = "Karel";

Take a few minutes and play around with the example below. Can you create a new struct and fill it with your information?

Assignment

Structs work similarly to other variables. We can assign values from one struct to another by individual field or fully assigning value by copying an entire struct. Check out the example below for more information.

Your Turn

Now it’s your turn to give it a try. For this exercise, create a struct for a car. The struct should have three string fields, make, model, and color.

Once you create the struct, create a variable to hold a car and define the values for your ideal car. Then print the results.

Sample Output:

My ideal car is a Metallic Blue Tesla, Model Y.