Initializing array of structures [duplicate]

my_data is a struct with name as a field and data[] is arry of structs, you are initializing each index. read following:

5.20 Designated Initializers:

In a structure initializer, specify the name of a field to initialize with .fieldname=" before the element value. For example, given the following structure,

struct point { int x, y; };

the following initialization

struct point p = { .y = yvalue, .x = xvalue };

is equivalent to

struct point p = { xvalue, yvalue };

Another syntax which has the same meaning, obsolete since GCC 2.5, is fieldname:", as shown here:

struct point p = { y: yvalue, x: xvalue };

You can also write:

my_data data[] = {
    { .name = "Peter" },
    { .name = "James" },
    { .name = "John" },
    { .name = "Mike" }
};

as:

my_data data[] = {
    [0] = { .name = "Peter" },
    [1] = { .name = "James" },
    [2] = { .name = "John" },
    [3] = { .name = "Mike" }
}; 

or:

my_data data[] = {
    [0].name = "Peter",
    [1].name = "James",
    [2].name = "John",
    [3].name = "Mike"
}; 

Second and third forms may be convenient as you don’t need to write in order for example all of the above example are equivalent to:

my_data data[] = {
    [3].name = "Mike",
    [1].name = "James",
    [0].name = "Peter",
    [2].name = "John"
}; 

If you have multiple fields in your struct (for example, an int age), you can initialize all of them at once using the following:

my_data data[] = {
    [3].name = "Mike",
    [2].age = 40,
    [1].name = "James",
    [3].age = 23,
    [0].name = "Peter",
    [2].name = "John"
}; 

To understand array initialization read Strange initializer expression?

Additionally, you may also like to read @Shafik Yaghmour’s answer for switch case: What is “…” in switch-case in C code