Sending a structure over socket in c

Question

I am writing a program which uses socket programming in c.

In this program a client and server keep transmitting and receiving data.

When I send and receive integers over the socket using this kind of code

//in the program sending data
int data;
len= send(s,(char *)&(data),sizeof(data),0);

//in the program receiving data
int num;
len = recv(s,&num, sizeof(num) , 0);

The above code is working fine and I am able to transmit and receive numbers.

In one case I am trying to send a structure of the form

struct sample{
int num;
char chain[10*hops+10];
};

//in the program sending data
struct sample s1;
len= send(s,(char *)&(s1),sizeof(s1),0);

//in the program receiving data
struct sample s2;
len = recv(s,&s2, sizeof(s2) , 0);

In the example where I am trying to send and receive structure it is not working. How to send and receive the struct successfully ?

Note: 1) Hops is a pre defined variable.The value of hops is same in both the programs. 2) By not working I meant : when I receive the struct and print the value in the the num. It is printing not the same value but zero!

Answer 1

if you are trying to send the struct you must use serialization and deserialization, read about that, you can start with :

Serialization issues while sending struct over socket