error using structs, C - c

Question

i am getting the error "a3.c:221:20: error: storage size of ‘gold’ isn’t known" for all 4 of my item structs. My code is as follows:
void parser(int argc, char **argv)
{
FILE * rooms;
char * theString;
char * theToken;
int numberElements;
int side;
int k;
int placeInt;
int posX;
int posY;
char a[ROOM_STRING_LENGTH];
numberElements = 0;
rooms = fopen(argv[1], "r");
if(rooms == NULL)
{
printf("error opening file\n");
}
while(fgets(a, ROOM_STRING_LENGTH, rooms) != NULL)
{
theString = malloc((sizeof(char)*(strlen(a)+1)));
strcpy(theString, a);
for(theToken = strtok(theString, " "); theToken; theToken = strtok(NULL, " "))
{
printf("the next token: %s\n", theToken);
if(theToken[0] == '1')
{
}
if(theToken[0] == 'd')
{
switch(theToken[1])
{
case 'e':
{
side = 1;
placeInt = theToken[2] - '0';
printf("the side: %d, the place: %d\n", side, placeInt);
break;
}
case 'w':
{
side = 2;
placeInt = theToken[2] - '0';
printf("the side: %d, the place: %d\n", side, placeInt);
break;
}
case 's':
{
side = 3;
placeInt = theToken[2] - '0';
printf("the side: %d, the place: %d\n", side, placeInt);
break;
}
case 'n':
{
side = 4;
placeInt = theToken[2] - '0';
printf("the side: %d, the place: %d\n", side, placeInt);
break;
}
default:
{
break;
}
}
}
else if(theToken[0] == 'g' || theToken[0] == 'm' || theToken[0] == 'p' || theToken[0] == 'h')
{
k = 0;
while(k <= (strlen(theToken)))
{
switch(theToken[k])
{
case 'g':
posY = theToken[1] - '0';
posX = theToken[3] - '0';
struct item gold;
gold.Xposition = posX;
gold.Yposition = posY;
printf("the y position: %d, the x position: %d\n", posY, posX);
break;
case 'm':
posY = theToken[1] - '0';
posX = theToken[3] - '0';
struct item monster;
monster.Xposition = posX;
monster.Yposition = posY;
printf("the y position: %d, the x position: %d\n", posY, posX);
break;
case 'p':
posY = theToken[1] - '0';
posX = theToken[3] - '0';
struct item potion;
potion.Xposition = posX;
potion.Yposition = posY;
printf("the y position: %d, the x position: %d\n", posY, posX);
break;
case 'h':
posY = theToken[1] - '0';
posX = theToken[3] - '0';
struct item hero;
hero.Xposition = posX;
hero.Yposition = posY;
printf("the y position: %d, the x position: %d\n", posY, posX);
break;
}
k++;
}
}
else if(theToken == NULL)
{
printf("end of file");
}
numberElements++;
}
if(theToken == NULL)
{
printf("You've reached the end of the line\n");
}
printf("%d\n", numberElements);
}
free(theString);
fclose(rooms);
}
struct item
{
int Xposition;
int Yposition;
};
Also, I was wondering how i would go about accessing the information i just stored into those structs in a different function.

Answer 1

As keltar and nonsensickle already mentioned, you have to define struct item before you can use an instance of it:
struct item { int x; int y; }; // this must come first
// ...
struct item item1 {4, 2};
You could, however, use a pointer before the definition, as long as you have already declared the struct:
struct item; // declaration, no definition
// ...
struct item *pitem1;
// ...
struct item { int x; int y; }; // defined later
To use a struct's members in another function, you could pass either a struct or a struct* to that function:
void use_struct (struct item i)
{
int a = i.x, b = i.y;
}
void use_struct_pointer (struct item *pi)
{
int a = pi->x, b = pi->y;
}
int main()
{
struct item i {4, 2};
use_struct(i);
use_struct_pointer(&i);
return 0;
}