将结构类型的变量发送到套接字

Question

For a study project, can I send a variable of type struct from server to client that had information of an employee(ID,salary etc), actually I am not so much used to of C so I am not much clear about this concept. or give me any idea that in which form i can send this information on socket.

Answer 1

While the struct contents can be transmitted, this is likely to cause problems.

Struct alignment varies between compilers, target CPUs, and version of CPU. Also, the size of each structure element requires care so that it is a consistent size across architectures.

struct s {
     int          a;
     short        b;
     long         c;
     long double  d;
};

While most engineers are aware that int could be anywhere from 16 to 128 bits, depending on the target architecture, the other fields also might have sizes which are different from target to target. long double might be equivalent to float on the most primitive embedded CPUs and could be 64, 80, or 128 bits on mainstream architectures.

To resolve these problems, a full spectrum of solutions have evolved: from full control of both ends of a communication link to converting the data to a streaming format like XML.