Frequently pointers are used to structure variables. A special operator '->' is used in place of the dot operator to access members of a structure pointed to by a pointer variable, to avoid cumbersome syntax. It is important to remember to define a non-pointer variable as well in order to allocate space for the structure itself:
struct personnel_rec *person_ptr,
jack;
person_ptr = &jack; /* if you forget this you may crash the program! */
person_ptr->salary = 1.5e6; /* same as: (*person_ptr).salary = 1.5e6 */
The same array-pointer relationship holds as that for the basic data types.
struct personnel_rec person[10];
(person+1)->salary = 1.5e6; /* ok since space is allocated in previous line */
It is illegal to declare a member of a struct to be a variable of the same user-defined type. For example, a personnel_rec variable may not be a member of the personnel_rec type, for obvious reasons. However, it is legal to declare a member to
