How to initialize a struct in accordance with C programming language standards

Question

I want to initialize a struct element, split in declaration and initialization. This is what I have:

typedef struct MY_TYPE {
  bool flag;
  short int value;         


        

Answer 1

You can do it with a compound literal. According to that page, it works in C99 (which also counts as ANSI C).

MY_TYPE a;

a = (MY_TYPE) { .flag = true, .value = 123, .stuff = 0.456 };
...
a = (MY_TYPE) { .value = 234, .stuff = 1.234, .flag = false };

The designations in the initializers are optional; you could also write:

a = (MY_TYPE) { true,  123, 0.456 };
...
a = (MY_TYPE) { false, 234, 1.234 };