Quick question about pointers

[Sayagain]

struct Student 
{ 
 
   string name; // or char name[] with the max number of characters allowed in a name 
   double gpa; 
   double cur_Hours; 
   Student *next;  //pointer to the next student 
};


Student *head; 
head = NULL; 

i have this struct, and the pointer to the struct called head, yet when I compile (in VS) I get error messages, I cant seem to see what is wrong, surely I dont have to create a pointer for an oject of the struct Student?

(learning the basics of linked lists!)


error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int




: error C2040: 'head' : 'int' differs in levels of indirection from 'Student *'

Thanks

[Disch]

you didn't show us enough code.

Paste the line of code that's actually giving you that error.

I don't see anything wrong with the above code other than line 12 being global (which would cause an error, but not the one you're describing).

[Sayagain]

Hi that pretty much is my whole code so far:

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

struct Student 
{ 
 
   string name; // or char name[] with the max number of characters allowed in a name 
   double gpa; 
   double cur_Hours; 
   Student *next;  //pointer to the next student 
};


Student *head; 
head = NULL; 

int main()

{
	return 0;

}

The two errors are on the line head = NULL,


thanks

[firedraco]

You can't do that. I *think* you can do this instead though:
Student* head = NULL;

If that doesn't work, you will need to move the head = NULL line into main().

However, globals are evil and I would suggest moving that global into main().

[Sayagain]

Sorted thankyou, I guess you cant declare a pointer to be NULL globally,

[chrisname]

No, it's that you can't have a statement outside of a function. The only things that can go outside functions are expressions and function definitions/declarations, as well as preprocessor macros.