C51: ACCESSING A STRUCTURE VIA A POINTER

Information in this article applies to:

• C51 Version 5.50

SYMPTOMS

If I declare a structure called foo then declare a pointer to foo called foo_ptr I am then able to access members of the structure via the pointer using the '.' operator. For example:

foo_ptr = &foo;    // initialize pointer to a structure

foo_ptr->x = 3;    // correct member accessing
foo_ptr.x = 3;     // this also works but it should generate an error

RESOLUTION

This is a known problem in C51 V5.x. It has been corrected in C51 V6.x (see below). If you still use C51 V5.x, care must be taken when accessing structures using pointers that the correct operator is used (->).

SEE ALSO

• C51: ERROR 200 (LEFT SIDE OF '.' REQUIRES STRUCT/UNION)

FORUM THREADS

The following Discussion Forum threads may provide information related to this topic.

• question on structures

Last Reviewed: Sunday, March 05, 2000