"Y does not name a type" error in C++

Question

I don't know what to search to find an explanation for this, so I am asking.
I have this code which reports error:

struct Settings{
    int width;
    int height;
} settings;

settings.width = 800; // 'settings' does not name a type error
settings.height = 600; // 'settings' does not name a type error

int main(){
    cout << settings.width << " " << settings.height << endl;

but if I put the value assignment in main, it works:

struct Settings{
    int width;
    int height;
} settings;

main () {
    settings.width = 800; // no error
    settings.height = 600; // no error

Can you explain me why?

EDIT:
Regarding to Ralph Tandetzky's answer, here is my full struct code. Could you show me how to assign the values as you did with my snippet struct?

struct Settings{
    struct Dimensions{
        int width;
        int height;
    } screen;

    struct Build_menu:Dimensions{
        int border_width;
    } build_menu;
} settings;

Answer 1

You cannot put assignments outside the context of a function in C++. If you're puzzled by the fact that you sometimes saw the = symbol being used outside the context of a function, such as:

int x = 42; // <== THIS IS NOT AN ASSIGNMENT!

int main()
{
    // ...
}

That's because the = symbol can be used for initialization as well. In your example, you are not initializing the data members width and height, you are assigning a value to them.