Nested structs

Learn to use a struct inside another struct.

Nested structs

A member of a struct can itself be another struct. This is the basic way to group related data hierarchically.

struct Address {
    string city;
    string street;
};
struct Person {
    string name;
    Address home;
};

Here the Person struct contains an Address member. To access an inner member, you chain dots: p.home.city. This lets you model real objects more naturally.

Using nested structs

In a nested struct, after defining the outer struct you can assign inner members one by one. You can also define the inner struct separately first and then assign it to the outer struct.

Person p;
p.name = "Ayşe";
p.home.city = "İstanbul";
p.home.street = "Çiçek Sokak";

Here p.home behaves like an Address; its members are assigned with .city and .street. This layout keeps the address as a separate struct while staying readable.

Exercise Define Person and Address

Define struct Address { string city; string street; };. Then define struct Person { string name; Address home; };. In main, create Person p;; assign p.name = "Ayşe"; and p.home.city = "İstanbul";. Print cout << p.name << " - " << p.home.city << endl;.

Show example solution

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

struct Address {
    string city;
    string street;
};

struct Person {
    string name;
    Address home;
};

int main() {
    Person p;
    p.name = "Ayşe";
    p.home.city = "İstanbul";
    cout << p.name << " - " << p.home.city << endl;
    return 0;
}

Test yourself

What does p.home.city do for Person p;?
- raises an error
- creates a new city
- accesses the inner city member
- writes city for Person
Show answer

accesses the inner city member — The dot chain accesses the inner member.

Fill in the blank: inner member access

Person p;
p.____.city = "İzmir";

Show answer

Person p;
p.home.city = "İzmir";

Match each expression with its result

p.name

person name
p.home.city

city
p.home.street

street

Next lesson: Summary - Structs

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