How can mixed data types (int, float, char, etc) be stored in an array?

You can make the array elements a discriminated union, aka tagged union.

struct {    enum { is_int, is_float, is_char } type;    union {        int ival;        float fval;        char cval;    } val;} my_array[10];

The type member is used to hold the choice of which member of the union is should be used for each array element. So if you want to store an int in the first element, you would do:

my_array[0].type = is_int;my_array[0].val.ival = 3;

When you want to access an element of the array, you must first check the type, then use the corresponding member of the union. A switch statement is useful:

switch (my_array[n].type) {case is_int:    // Do stuff for integer, using my_array[n].ival    break;case is_float:    // Do stuff for float, using my_array[n].fval    break;case is_char:    // Do stuff for char, using my_array[n].cvar    break;default:    // Report an error, this shouldn't happen}

It's left up to the programmer to ensure that the type member always corresponds to the last value stored in the union.

Use a union:

union {    int ival;    float fval;    void *pval;} array[10];

You will have to keep track of the type of each element, though.

Array elements need to have the same size, that is why it's not possible. You could work around it by creating a variant type:

#include <stdio.h>#define SIZE 3typedef enum __VarType {  V_INT,  V_CHAR,  V_FLOAT,} VarType;typedef struct __Var {  VarType type;  union {    int i;    char c;    float f;  };} Var;void var_init_int(Var *v, int i) {  v->type = V_INT;  v->i = i;}void var_init_char(Var *v, char c) {  v->type = V_CHAR;  v->c = c;}void var_init_float(Var *v, float f) {  v->type = V_FLOAT;  v->f = f;}int main(int argc, char **argv) {  Var v[SIZE];  int i;  var_init_int(&v[0], 10);  var_init_char(&v[1], 'C');  var_init_float(&v[2], 3.14);  for( i = 0 ; i < SIZE ; i++ ) {    switch( v[i].type ) {      case V_INT  : printf("INT   %d\n", v[i].i); break;      case V_CHAR : printf("CHAR  %c\n", v[i].c); break;      case V_FLOAT: printf("FLOAT %f\n", v[i].f); break;    }  }  return 0;}

The size of the element of the union is the size of the largest element, 4.