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I have seen source codes always having a typedef for a structure and using the same everywhere instead of using the structure name as "struct sname" etc directly?
What is the reason behind this? Are there any advantages in doing this?
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The C language contains the typedef keyword to allow users to provide alternative names for the primitive (e.g., int) and user-defined (e.g struct) data types. Remember, this keyword adds a new name for some existing data type but does not create a new type.
In general, a pointer, or a struct that has elements that can reasonably be directly accessed should never be a typedef.
The typedef is an advance feature in C language which allows us to create an alias or new name for an existing type or user defined type.
You can't "typedef a struct", that doesn't mean anything.
Its easier to read Box b; than struct boxtype b;
typedef struct _entry{
char *name;
int id;
} Entry, *EntryP;
Advantage:
In the above typedef, both Entry & EntryP are defined apart from struct _entry.
So, EntryP firstentry can be used in place of struct _entry *firstentry and is a little simpler to parse in mind.
Note: Its not like structure names should be typedefined, but evidently its easier to read. Also, use of Entry * vs EntryP is totally user-dependent.
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