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Variables of the same type can be put into arrays.

char letter[50];

defines an array of 50 characters, letter[0] being the 1st and letter[49] being the last character. C has no subscript checking; if you go off the end of an array C won't warn you.

Multidimensional arrays can be defined too. E.g.

char values[50][30][10];

defines a 3D array. Note that you can't access an element using values[3,6,1]; you have to type values[3][6][1].

Variables of different types can be grouped into a structure (like a record in Pascal).

struct person {
     int age;
     int height;
     char surname[20];
} fred, jane;

defines 2 structures of type person each of 3 fields. Fields are accessed using the `.' operator. For example, fred.age is an integer which can be used in assignments just as a simple variable can.

typedef creates a new type. E.g.

typedef struct{
     int age;
     int height;
     char surname[20];
} person;

create a type called person and

typedef struct{
  double real;
  double imaginary;
} complex;

creates a complex type. Note that typedef creates new variable types but doesn't create any new variables. These are created just as variables of the predefined types are:-

person fred, jane;

Structure may be assigned, passed to functions and returned, but they cannot compared, so

person fred, jane;
...
fred = jane;

is possible (the fields of jane being copied into fred) but you can't then go on to do

if (fred == jane)
  fprint(stderr,"The copying worked ok\n");

you have to compare field by field.

As you see, new variable types are easily produced. What you can't do (but can in C++ and Algol68) is extend the meaning of an existing operator (`overload' it) so that it works with the new variable type: you have to write a specific function instead.

A union is like a struct except that the fields occupy the same memory location with enough memory allocated to hold the largest item. The programmer has to keep a note of what the union is being used for. What would the following code print out?

...
union  person {
     int age;
     int height;
     char surname[20];
} fred;

fred.age = 23;
fred.height = 163;
printf("Fred is %d years old\n", fred.age);
...

If fred started at memory location 2000, then fred.age, fred.height and fred.surname would all begin at memory location 2000 too, whereas in a struct the fields wouldn't overlap. So setting fred.height to 163 overwrites fred.age (and the 1st 4 characters of fred.surname) making fred 163 years old.

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