Anonymous Structures
Microsoft Specific
A Microsoft C extension allows you to declare a structure variable within another structure without giving it a name. These nested structures are called anonymous structures. C++ does not allow anonymous structures.
You can access the members of an anonymous structure as if they were members in the containing structure.
Example
// anonymous_structures.c
#include <stdio.h>
struct phone
{
int areacode;
long number;
};
struct person
{
char name[30];
char gender;
int age;
int weight;
struct phone; // Anonymous structure; no name needed
} Jim;
int main()
{
Jim.number = 1234567;
printf_s("%d\n", Jim.number);
}
1234567