Using VS2013 Update 2, I've stumbled on some strange error message : // test.c int main(void) { struct foo { int i; float f; }; struct bar { unsigned u; struct foo foo; double d; }; struct foo some_foo = { .i = 1, .f = 2.0 }; struct bar some_bar = { .u = 3, // error C2440 : 'initializing' : cannot convert from 'foo' to 'int' .foo = some_foo, .d = 4.0 }; // Works fine some_bar.foo = some_foo; return 0; } Both GCC and Clang accept it. Am I missing something or does this piece of code exposes a compiler bug ? EDIT : Duplicate: Initializing struct within another struct using designated initializer causes compile error in Visual Studio 2013