How do you properly store structures in C-CodePudding

As the title suggests, I am attempting to store a structure in C but want to find the most efficient way of doing so. The answer certainly depends on the data being stored right?

I know of Linked lists and doubly linked lists, but I'm working with the Periodic Table which comes out to 118 elements with 29 unique fields for each element and I don't know if linked lists are even necessary. Currently, I've tested out storing a few elements and 4 characteristics into a structure array. There are ints, floats, and strings.

element[0] - atomicNumber: 1    element: Hydrogen       symbol: H       atomicMass: 1.0070
element[1] - atomicNumber: 2    element: Helium         symbol: He      atomicMass: 4.0020
element[2] - atomicNumber: 3    element: Lithium        symbol: Li      atomicMass: 6.9410
element[3] - atomicNumber: 4    element: Beryllium      symbol: Be      atomicMass: 9.0120

So, does anyone have any insight that might help guide me?

CodePudding user response：

It depends as much on the data being stored as it does on the way you want to use it. A general pointer: if you know exactly how many elements there will be, a fixed-size array is usually a good idea.

struct Element {
    int atomicNr;
    char symbol;
    // etc
};

Element elements[] = {
    {
       .atomicNr = 1,
       .symbol = 'H', 
    }, 
    // etc
};

You might even be able to get rid of atomicNr and just use the array index for that.