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[QUOTE="Eric Sosman, post: 2409160"]
Because it is an executable statement, and an executable
statement must reside inside a function (not "method").
This assignment is illegal for the same reason an exit()
call or a `for' loop would be illegal at this point.

However, you can still achieve your goal by using an
initializer in the declaration of `pp':

struct data test, *pp = &test;

or perhaps more clearly

struct data test;
	struct data *pp = &test;

Despite the presence of the `=' this is *not* an assignment
statement; it is a declaration with an initializer.  Keep in
mind that C tends to re-use the same character for multiple
purposes.  Depending on context, `*' can be the multiplication
operator or the pointer dereference operator or part of a `/*'
or `*/' comment marker or part of the `*=' multiply-and-assign
operator.  Just so, `=' can be the assignment operator, or part
of the syntax of an initialization, or part of `==' or `!=' or
`*=' or ...  Despite the fact that they both use `=' and have
the same set of symbols on both sides of it, your code and mine
are different: one is an executable statement, and the other
is a variable declaration with an initializer.
[/QUOTE]

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