How to Properly use Array of Structures of C-CodePudding

I'm recently started learning about structures in C Language. I tried out a sample program to extend my learning curve. But, here in this subject, I'm facing few errors. Shall anyone please figure out the errors in the following program.

#include<stdio.h>
main() {
 int i;
 struct elements {
  int z; /* Atomic Number */
  float m; /* Mass Number */
  char *name;
  char *symbol;
 };
 struct elements e[5];
 e[0] = (struct elements){1,1.008,"Hydrogen","H"};
 e[1] = (struct elements){2,4.0026,"Helium","He"};
 e[2] = (struct elements){3,6.94,"Lithium","Li"};
 clrscr();
 for(i=0;i<3;i  ) {
  printf("Element Name: %s\n",e[i].name);
  printf("Symbol: %s\n",e[i].symbol);
  printf("Atomic Number: %d\n",e[i].z);
  printf("Atomic Mass: %0.2f\n",e[i].m);
 }
 getch();
 return 0;
}

This shows the following Error messages:

CodePudding user response：

Despite the other comments, if this is what you have to work with, then you'll still be wanting a solution.

Try:

struct elements e[5] = {
    {1,1.008,"Hydrogen","H"},
    {2,4.0026,"Helium","He"},
    {3,6.94,"Lithium","Li"}
 };

What you had would work on later compilers (although some will want char const * in the struct for name and symbol to accept string literals), but its actually not very pretty to read, nor is it necessary when you are defining the entire array.

If you do it this way, you can omit the array size (change [5] to []) and it will size according to the number of elements provided.

CodePudding user response：

You aren't using a standard C compiler so you can't write the code in the standard C language.

You'll have to resort to the 1989 version of the C language known as "C89"/"C90". It doesn't support the compound literal feature (struct elements){1,1.008,"Hydrogen","H"};, because that one was added to the C language 23 years ago.