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implementing Struct Initialization and Pointer Arithmetic in C - Segmentation Fault on Access

👀 Views: 85 đŸ’Ŧ Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-06-13
c structs pointers C

I'm dealing with This might be a silly question, but This might be a silly question, but I'm currently working with a segmentation fault when trying to access members of a struct after performing pointer arithmetic....... I have a struct `Person` defined as follows: ```c typedef struct { char name[50]; int age; } Person; ``` I created an array of `Person` structures and initialized it with some values: ```c Person people[2]; strcpy(people[0].name, "Alice"); people[0].age = 30; strcpy(people[1].name, "Bob"); people[1].age = 25; ``` Next, I'm trying to use pointer arithmetic to iterate over this array. Here's how I'm doing it: ```c Person *ptr = people; for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++) { printf("Name: %s, Age: %d\n", (ptr + i)->name, (ptr + i)->age); } ``` However, when I run the code, I occasionally get a segmentation fault on accessing `ptr + i`. I have confirmed that the array is properly initialized, and I need to figure out why this would happen. I have also tried checking the bounds of the pointer before accessing it, but the scenario continues. I am compiling with GCC 10.2.0 on Ubuntu 20.04 and using the `-Wall` flag to catch potential warnings. Any insights on why I'm getting a segmentation fault or what I might be missing? Is there a better way to handle pointer arithmetic with structs? This is part of a larger web app I'm building. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for taking the time to read this! Thanks in advance! This issue appeared after updating to C 3.9. Has anyone else encountered this? I'm working in a Ubuntu 20.04 environment. I'd be grateful for any help.