c语言结构体怎么编译,C语言结构体，我用点不行，必须要用->才编译成功，这是为什么...

#include

#include

#include

#define LEN sizeof(struct student)

struct student

{

int number;

struct student *pnext;

};

int n;

struct student *creat(void)

{

struct student *head,*p1,*p2;

n=0;

p1=p2=(struct student *)malloc(LEN);

head=NULL;

scanf("%d",&p1.number);

while(p1.number!=0)

{

n++;

if(n==1) head=p1;

else p2->pnext=p1;

p2=p1;

p1=(struct student *)malloc(LEN);

scanf("%d",&p1.number);

}

p2->pnext=NULL;

return(head);

}

main()

{

struct student *p;

p=creat();

while(p->pnext!=NULL)

{

printf("%d\n",p->number);

p=p->pnext;

}

return 0;

}

17 17 E:\学习\C源程序\C红书刷题\第三章_结构数据\链表\创建动态链表\未命名2.cpp [Error] request for member 'number' in 'p1', which is of pointer type 'student*' (maybe you meant to use '->' ?)

这是错误提示，然后我把.改成了->就解决了。为什么要这样, 点和->作用不是一样的么