What is the purpose of the flags struct in iOS?

Question

struct
{
    unsigned resizesCellWidths:1;
    unsigned numColumns:6;
    unsigned separatorStyle:3;
    unsigned allowsSelection:1;
    unsigned backgroundViewExtendsUp:1;
    unsigned backgroundViewExtendsDown:1;
    unsigned usesPagedHorizontalScrolling:1;
    unsigned updating:1;
    unsigned ignoreTouchSelect:1;
    unsigned needsReload:1;
    unsigned allCellsNeedLayout:1;
    unsigned isRotating:1;
    unsigned clipsContentWidthToBounds:1;
    unsigned isAnimatingUpdates:1;
    unsigned requiresSelection:1;
    unsigned contentSizeFillsBounds:1;
    unsigned delegateWillDisplayCell:1;
    unsigned delegateWillSelectItem:1;
    unsigned delegateWillSelectItemMultiTouch:1;
    unsigned delegateWillDeselectItem:1;
    unsigned delegateDidSelectItem:1;
    unsigned delegateDidSelectItemMultiTouch:1;
    unsigned delegateDidDeselectItem:1;
    unsigned delegateGestureRecognizerActivated:1;
    unsigned delegateAdjustGridCellFrame:1;
    unsigned delegateDidEndUpdateAnimation:1;
    unsigned dataSourceGridCellSize:1;
    unsigned int isEditing:1;
    unsigned __RESERVED__:1;
} _flags;

1. What is the purpose of this struct?
2. What does the :1 notation at the end of each line signify?
3. What is the meaning of unsigned modifier when there is no explicit type?

Thanks

Answer 1

Those are bitfields . Since most of these are flags, they only have 2 possible values, so there's no need to assign more than 1 bit to each field. (with a couple exceptions in that struct)

unsigned can stand alone as a type. It's just an unsigned int .