Confused between structure and union, Don’t worry we are here to fend your confusion.
What is structure?
Structure is a user-defined data type, which is a collection of variables of different types under a single name.
Defining structure
To Define a structure in c we have to use the Struct keyword.
Syntax
struct structure_name
{
data_type member1;
data_type member2;
.
.
data_type memeber;
};What is Union?
The union is a user-defined data type which is used to store different data type in the same memory location.
Syntax
Union Syntax:
union union_name{
member defination;
member defination2;
......
member defination3;
}union variable;Difference between Structure and Union
Below are the following point for structure
- Members of structure do not share memory. So A structure needs separate memory space for all its members i.e. all the members have unique storage.
- Members of structure can be accessed individually at any time.
- To define Structure, ‘struct’ keyword is used.
- All members of structure can be initialized.
- The size of the structure is > to the sum of each member’s size.
- Change in the value of one member can not affect the other in structure.
Below are the following point for union
- A union shares the memory space among its members so no need to allocate memory to all the members. Shared memory space is allocated i.e. equivalent to the size of a member having the largest memory.
- At a time, only one member of union can be accessed.
- To define Union, ‘union’ keyword is used.
- Only the first member of Union can be initialized.
- The size of union is equivalent to the size of the member having largest size.
- Change in the value of one member can affect the value of other member.
Still confused between structure and union feel free to comment, wer are here to help you.
