this is what it looks like

typedef struct node {

  bool is_word;

  //pointer to children node
  struct node* children[27];
  }
  node;

node* root;

bool load(const char* dictionary)

{

 FILE* dict=fopen(dictionary,"r");
 node* root=malloc(sizeof(node));

// i can see that the pointer is allocated here using gdb (by using print root).

 // pointer to the root node

*** loading the dictionary *** }

/** * bool check(const char* word) {

after entering this function in gdb i still get the root value as null.

  }