Initialize Static Array of Structs in C

Question

I'm implementing a card game in C. There are lots of types of cards and each has a bunch of information, including some actions that will need to be individually scripted associated with it.

Given a struct like this (and I'm not certain I have the syntax right for the function pointer)

struct CARD {     int value;     int cost;     // This is a pointer to a function that carries out actions unique     // to this card     int (*do_actions) (struct GAME_STATE *state, int choice1, int choice2); }; 

I would like to initialize a static array of these, one for each card. I'm guessing this would look something like this

int do_card0(struct GAME_STATE *state, int choice1, int choice2) {     // Operate on state here }  int do_card1(struct GAME_STATE *state, int choice1, int choice2) {     // Operate on state here }  extern static struct cardDefinitions[] = {     {0, 1, do_card0},     {1, 3, do_card1} }; 

1. Will this work, and am I going about this the right way at all? I'm trying to avoid huge numbers of switch statements.

2. Do I need to define the 'do_cardN' functions ahead of time, or is there some way to define them inline in the initialization of the struct (something like a lambda function in python)?

3. I'll need read-only access to cardDefinitions from a different file - is 'extern static' correct for that?

I know this is a lot of questions rolled into one but I'm really a bit vague about how to go about this.

Thanks.

Edit:

To be clear, my goal is to be able to do something like

int cost = cardDefinitions[cardNumber].cost; 

or

int result = cardDefinitions[cardNumber].do_action(state, choice1, choice2); 

Instead of using huge switch statements all over the place.

Answer 1

Your approach is exactly right.

1. This will work, and is a good way to avoid huge switch statements.
2. You can't define functions inline in C, they each must have a unique name.

3. extern is what you want, not static. Change your body to be this:

   struct CARD cardDefinitions[] = {      {0, 1, do_card0},      {1, 3, do_card1}  };  

   then in an appropriate header file:

   extern struct CARD cardDefinitions[];