Efficient Structures

Kranar · 2003-08-19T17:24:00

Okay, I''m using C and working on making a semi-efficient data structure for objects in my game. Now an object can be one of many varieties, it can be a weapon, or a shield, or a container, and heck technically it can be all of them or none of them. My one data structure must take into account all of these different types of objects for functionality reasons which I''d rather not get into. Every object has some essential data members. They include things like name, basic description, weight, size, and some other info. But for other members, not all objects need them, some members are only used for shields, other members are only used for containers, so on so forth. My question is this, how can I have a data structure that sometimes allocates memory for a set of members, and sometimes does not. That way the shield members of an object are only stored in RAM if the object is a shield, and that way I don''t have to store a bunch of variables/members in RAM when I''m not even using them. Thank you.