Double Dereference in struct C

Question

I have the following code. It seems the reading sequence is wrong. Any help?

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<string.h>

typedef struct punct{
int x;
int y;
}COORD;

typedef struct nod{
COORD *coord;
struct nod *urm;
}NOD;
int main()
{
  NOD *head= malloc( sizeof(NOD) );
  scanf("%d", &head->coord->x );
  scanf("%d", &head->coord->y );
  printf("%d, %d", head->coord->x , head->coord->y);

  return 0;
}

I have successfully managed to access only the x field of the struct by using head->coord , and from what I can tell that's the issue with my code. I'm already on the first field of the first struct so I can't access x/y because of that.

Answer 1

You did not initialize the coord variable so you shoud malloc some space for that too.

head->coord = malloc( sizeof (COORD) );

But in this case it might be best to put COORD in NOD instead of referencing to it!

So:

typedef struct nod{
   COORD coord;
   struct nod *urm;
}NOD;

You should only really make a pointer to it when you are going to swap the object a lot or when its a more complex object.

Answer 2

You haven't initialized head->coord . Dereferencing uninitialized pointers result in undefined behaviour . You need to do something like:

  head->coord = malloc( sizeof (COORD) );

You should also check the return value of malloc() for failures.