what is the difference between field and variable?

[root]

Hello!

Can somebody explain the difference between fields and variables.
For me they are more or less the same.
Two words for the same thing

//Tony

 

[Ian Collins]

Hello!

Can somebody explain the difference between fields and variables.

In what context? An example would help.

 

[Eric Sosman]

Hello!

Can somebody explain the difference between fields and variables.
For me they are more or less the same.
Two words for the same thing

Are you, by any chance, asking about C++ rather than
about C? C uses "field" only in the context "bit-field"
and in the description of some I/O functions, so if you're
asking about "fields" in C you'll first have to tell us
what "fields" are (and the telling you will probably answer
your own question).

But if it's a C++ thing, try comp.lang.c++ instead.

 

[Default User]

Hello!

Can somebody explain the difference between fields and variables.
For me they are more or less the same.
Two words for the same thing

It's sometimes used to refer to member variables of a struct. In that
case, it's a subset of the larger class of variables.

As Ian said, you'd need to provide more context.




Brian

 

[Anand Hariharan]

me@here> grep -iw field c89.txt  | wc -l
     54

http://www.partmaps.org/era/unix/award.html#wc

man grep
/-c

 

[Keith Thompson]

It's sometimes used to refer to member variables of a struct. In that
case, it's a subset of the larger class of variables.

Though "member variables" are more commonly referred to (at least in
C) as "members".

Whether a struct member is a "variable" depends on (a) how you define
the word "variable", and (b) whether you're referring to it in the
context of the struct type or of an object of the struct type.

As Ian said, you'd need to provide more context.

Yup.

 

[Michael Angelo Ravera]

Hello!

Can somebody explain the difference between fields and variables.
For me they are more or less the same.
Two words for the same thing

In the abstract computing science use of the term, "field" refers to a
congiguous portion of a record. In C records are often represented by
structs, so a field may very well be represented by a portion of a
struct.

In the abstract computing science use of the term, "variable" is any
value that is not a constant (and thus cannot reside permanently and
exclsively in code space).

So, a field implies, but does not require, some higher level of
organization (such as a record) and implies, but does not requre, some
lower level of organization (such as a variable).

Variables may be scalar, vectors, matrices, bases, or higher
organizations of any of these and may be homogeneous or heterogenous
variations of any of these. One might legitimately use the term
"field" to describe one section of a heterogeneous vector (or even one
slab of a homogeneous basis).

All that having been said, the most common use of the term "field" in
C will occur with reference to a character array within a struct.

 

[osmium]

Can somebody explain the difference between fields and variables.
For me they are more or less the same.
Two words for the same thing

Wikipedia is usually a good first place to try for an answer to questions of
that type.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_(computer_science)