Union, Bitfield, Enumeration
Prepared By : Mashiat Mustaq
Union
● A user-defined data type that contain elements just like structure.
● Unlike structures, all the members share the same memory location.
● So Only one member can store data at the given instance.
union union_name {
datatype member1;
datatype member2;
...
};
Union : Declaring variables
union union_name { union union_name var1, var2,
datatype member1; var3...;
datatype member2;
...
} var1, var2, ...;
Union : Size
#include <stdio.h> int main( ) {
#include <string.h>
union Data data;
union Data {
int i; printf( "Memory size occupied
by data : %d\n", sizeof(data));
float f;
char str[20];
return 0;
};
}
Equal to the size of the largest member
Union : Example
int main() printf("str = %s\n\n",data.str);
{ data.i = 5;
Data data; printf("i = %d\n",data.i);
data.f = 9.7;
printf("The size of the union
data : %ld\n\n",sizeof(data)); printf("f = %f\n",data.f);
data.i = 5; strcpy(data.str, "something");
data.f = 9.7; printf("str = %s\n",data.str);
strcpy(data.str, "something"); }
printf("i = %d\n",data.i);
printf("f = %f\n",data.f);
Union : Resources
● https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cprogramming/c_unions.htm
● https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/c-unions/
Bitfield
struct
{
data_type member_name : width_of_bit-field;
};
struct date
{
// month has value between 0 and 15,
// so 4 bits are sufficient for month variable.
int month : 4;
};
Bitfield : Example
struct date {
// d has value between 0 and 31, so 5 int main()
bits
{
// are sufficient
printf("Size of date is %lu bytes\n",
unsigned int d : 5;
sizeof(struct date));
// m has value between 0 and 15, so 4
struct date dt = { 31, 12, 2014 };
bits
printf("Date is %d/%d/%d", dt.d, dt.m,
// are sufficient
dt.y);
unsigned int m : 4;
return 0;
// let's we want to support up to
}
3000, so 12 bits will suffice
unsigned int y : 12;
};
Enumeration : Assign names to integer constants
enum week{Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun};
int main()
{
enum week day;
day = Wed;
printf("%d",day);
return 0;
}
Enumeration
enum year{Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul,
Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec};
int main()
{
int i;
for (i=Jan; i<=Dec; i++)
printf("%d ", i);
return 0;
}
Enumeration
enum State {Working = 1, Failed = 0, Freezed = 0};
int main()
{
printf("%d, %d, %d", Working, Failed, Freezed);
return 0;
}
Enumeration
enum day {sunday = 1, monday, tuesday = 5,
wednesday, thursday = 10, friday, saturday};
int main()
{
printf("%d %d %d %d %d %d %d", sunday, monday, tuesday,
wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday);
return 0;
}
