Differences between struct in C and C++

Question

I am trying to convert a C++ struct to C but keep getting "undeclared identifier"? Does C++ have a different syntax for referring to structs?

struct KEY_STATE 
{
    bool kSHIFT; //if the shift key is pressed 
    bool kCAPSLOCK; //if the caps lock key is pressed down
    bool kCTRL; //if the control key is pressed down
    bool kALT; //if the alt key is pressed down
};

I am using a variable of type KEY_STATE inside another structure:

typedef struct _DEVICE_EXTENSION
{
    WDFDEVICE WdfDevice;
    KEY_STATE kState;
} DEVICE_EXTENSION, *PDEVICE_EXTENSION;

results in error C2061: syntax error : identifier 'KEY_STATE'

...on the line KEY_STATE kState; I am building with the WDK compiler if that makes any difference. This is in a header file of course. I am porting C++ WDM driver to WDF and C.

This is the MSDN article for C2061.

An initializer may be enclosed by parentheses. To avoid this problem, enclose the declarator in parentheses or make it a typedef.

This error could also be caused when the compiler detects an expression as a class template argument; use typename to tell the compiler it is a type.

Changing KEY_STATE to typedef struct still causes this error and actually causes a lot more. There are no free parentheses or things in too many parentheses, that is the other thing the article suggests.

Answer 1

In C, the name of the type is struct KEY_STATE.

So you have to declare the second struct as

typedef struct _DEVICE_EXTENSION
{
    WDFDEVICE WdfDevice;
    struct KEY_STATE kState;
} DEVICE_EXTENSION, *PDEVICE_EXTENSION;

If you do not want to write struct all the time, you can use a typedef declare KEY_STATE similar to DEVICE_EXTENSION:

typedef struct _KEY_STATE
{
    /* ... */
} KEY_STATE;