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Union and Enumeration

Unions allow storing different data types in the same memory location, enabling efficient memory usage. A union defines a data type that can store one of its member types in a shared memory block. Only one member can be accessed at a time, and accessing a non-last member written may cause undefined behavior. Unions are useful when interpreting the same memory as different data types is needed.

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5K views

Union and Enumeration

Unions allow storing different data types in the same memory location, enabling efficient memory usage. A union defines a data type that can store one of its member types in a shared memory block. Only one member can be accessed at a time, and accessing a non-last member written may cause undefined behavior. Unions are useful when interpreting the same memory as different data types is needed.

Uploaded by

parth2029.be22
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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 Unions in C are user-defined data type that allows

storing different types of data in the same memory


location.
 They enable efficient memory utilization by sharing
the same memory space for different data types.
 The syntax to declare a union is:
union union_name {
member1;
member2; ...
};
Example:
union employee {
int empId;
float salary;
char name[20];
};
 Union members can be accessed using the dot (.)
operator.
 Example:
union employee emp;
emp.empId = 123;
emp.salary = 5000.0;
 Thesize of a union is determined by the largest member size.
 Example:
◦ If a union has a member of type int (4 bytes) and another member of type float (4
bytes), the size of the union will be 4 bytes.
Unionscan be initialized similar to structures.
Example:
union employee emp = {
.empId = 123, .salary = 5000.0
};
Unions share the same memory location for all its
members.
Accessing a member other than the last one written
can result in undefined behavior.
 Unions are useful when we want to interpret the same
memory location as different data types.
Example:
union value {
int intValue;
float floatValue;
};
 Unions are often used in scenarios where different types of data need to be
stored in the same memory space, such as parsers, network programming,
and hardware manipulation.
 Unions can be useful in many situations where we want to use the same
memory for two or more members. For example, suppose we want to
implement a binary tree data structure where each leaf node has a double data
value, while each internal node has pointers to two children, but no data. If we
declare this as:
struct NODE {
struct NODE* left;
struct NODE* right;
double data;
};
 Memory efficiency: Unions save memory by sharing memory
space for different types of data.
 Versatile data representation: Unions are useful when
different data types need to be stored in the same memory
location.
 Interpretation flexibility: Unions allow interpreting the same
memory location as different data types, providing versatility
in data retrieval.
 Limitedsimultaneous use: Only one member of a union can
be used at a time, and accessing a member other than the
last one written can lead to undefined behavior.
 Enumeration in C is a user-defined data type that consists
of a set of named constants.
 It allows us to define a list of related named values.
 The syntax to declare an enumeration is:
enum enum_name {
value1, value2, ...
};
Example:
enum days {
MON, TUE, WED, THU, FRI, SAT, SUN
};
 Enumeration constants are assigned integer values by
default, starting from 0.
 Example:
In enum days, MON is assigned 0, TUE is assigned 1, and so on.
 You can explicitly assign values to enumeration
constants.
Example:
enum months {
JAN = 1, FEB = 2, MAR = 3, APR = 4
};
Enumeration constants can be accessed using the
dot (.) operator.
Example:
enum days today = MON;
 Enumeration constants are often used in switch statements
for better readability.
Example:
enum days today = MON;
switch(today) {
case MON: // Code for Monday
break;
case TUE: // Code for Tuesday
break; //
Rest of the cases
}
 The enumeration type is referred to as the "enum" and its
individual values are called "enumerators."
 The size of an enumeration constant is determined by the
underlying integer type.
 By default, it is int, but it can be explicitly specified using a colon (:)
followed by the desired type.
Example:
enum sizes :
short {
SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE
};
 Improved code clarity: Enums provide meaningful
names to represent related values, making the code
more understandable.
 Easy maintenance: If a value needs to be added or
removed, it can be done by modifying the enum
declaration only.
 Compiler checks: The compiler can perform type
checking, ensuring that only valid enum values are used.
 Limited values: Enums are restricted to a fixed set of
values, and they cannot represent arbitrary values or
complex data structures.

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