array_of_structs

array_of_structs.c

Example of a custom, dynamically grown array for storing custom data structures. Demonstrated on a ContactBook storing custom Contact structures with contact names and their respective addresses.

Contains functions that initialize the ContactBook, add new Contact structures to this book, dynamically grow it and after being done writing done reallocating it to it's minimal possible size to free up memory.

Tested with Valgrind for potential memory leaks.

Example usage

// Initialize new contact book
ContactBook* contact_book = initialize_contact_book();

// Add some contacts to the book
// Array begins with size 4 and is automatically regrown (reallocated) to double it's size when space runs up.
Contact contact1 = {"Pavel Fesenko", "Development Street 12"};
Contact contact2 = {"Harry Potter", "Hogwarts, room 164"};
Contact contact3 = {"Joshamie Gibbs", "Tortuga 322"};
Contact contact4 = {"Captain Picard", "Starfleet HQ"};
Contact contact5 = {"Ron Weasley", "Hogwarts, room 164"};
add_contact(contact_book, contact1);
add_contact(contact_book, contact2);
add_contact(contact_book, contact3);
add_contact(contact_book, contact4);
add_contact(contact_book, contact5);

// As we are done writing data into the book, we can now shrink it dynamically to free up additional memory.
// This can be done simply by calling the method below.
realloc_contact_book(contact_book);

// Print the contacts in the book
Contact contact;
for(int i = 0; i < contact_book->size; i++) {
    contact = contact_book->contacts[i];
    printf("%s - %s\n", contact.name, contact.address);
}

// Finally free all the memory
free_contact_book(contact_book);