# Struct types

A `struct` type is a heterogeneous product of other types, called the fields of the type.1

New instances of a `struct` can be constructed with a struct expression.

The memory layout of a `struct` is undefined by default to allow for compiler optimizations like field reordering, but it can be fixed with the `#[repr(...)]` attribute. In either case, fields may be given in any order in a corresponding struct expression; the resulting `struct` value will always have the same memory layout.

The fields of a `struct` may be qualified by visibility modifiers, to allow access to data in a struct outside a module.

A tuple struct type is just like a struct type, except that the fields are anonymous.

A unit-like struct type is like a struct type, except that it has no fields. The one value constructed by the associated struct expression is the only value that inhabits such a type.

1

`struct` types are analogous to `struct` types in C, the record types of the ML family, or the struct types of the Lisp family.