STRUCT_ARRAY in your code should be a pointer to a pointer array, not a pointer to an element in the array, as you are appending STRUCT_2 pointers to the array.
In c, STRUCT_ARRAY can be defined as *STRUCT_2[length], aka an array of STRUCT_2 pointers
import ctypes
from random import randint
class STRUCT_2(ctypes.Structure):
#_pack_=2
_fields_ = [('field_1', ctypes.c_short),
('field_2', ctypes.c_short),
('field_3', ctypes.c_short),
('field_4', ctypes.c_short),
('field_5', ctypes.c_short),
('field_6', ctypes.c_short),
('field_7', ctypes.c_short),
('field_8', ctypes.c_short)]
class STRUCT_1(ctypes.Structure):
#_pack_=2
_fields_ = [('elements', ctypes.c_short),
#an array of pointers
('STRUCT_ARRAY', ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.POINTER(STRUCT_2)))]
def __init__(self,num_of_structs):
elems = (ctypes.POINTER(STRUCT_2) * num_of_structs)()
self.STRUCT_ARRAY = ctypes.cast(elems,ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.POINTER(STRUCT_2)))
self.elements = num_of_structs
for num in range(0,num_of_structs):
self.STRUCT_ARRAY[num].field_1 = 1
self.STRUCT_ARRAY[num].field_2 = 2
self.STRUCT_ARRAY[num].field_3 = 3
for num in range(0,100):
test = STRUCT_1(num)
print("%i done" % num)
If instead what you want is an array of structs, use the following code:
import ctypes
from random import randint
class STRUCT_2(ctypes.Structure):
#_pack_=2
_fields_ = [('field_1', ctypes.c_short),
('field_2', ctypes.c_short),
('field_3', ctypes.c_short),
('field_4', ctypes.c_short),
('field_5', ctypes.c_short),
('field_6', ctypes.c_short),
('field_7', ctypes.c_short),
('field_8', ctypes.c_short)]
class STRUCT_1(ctypes.Structure):
#_pack_=2
_fields_ = [('elements', ctypes.c_short),
#an array of structs
('STRUCT_ARRAY', ctypes.POINTER(STRUCT_2))]
def __init__(self,num_of_structs):
elems = (STRUCT_2 * num_of_structs)()
self.STRUCT_ARRAY = ctypes.cast(elems,ctypes.POINTER(STRUCT_2))
self.elements = num_of_structs
for num in range(0,num_of_structs):
self.STRUCT_ARRAY[num].field_1 = 1
self.STRUCT_ARRAY[num].field_2 = 2
self.STRUCT_ARRAY[num].field_3 = 3
self.STRUCT_ARRAY[num].field_4 = 4
for num in range(0,100):
test = STRUCT_1(num)
print("%i done" % num)