sizeof Operator

sizeof expression

The sizeof keyword gives the amount of storage, in bytes, associated with a variable or a type (including aggregate types). This keyword returns a value of type size_t.

The expression is either an identifier or a type-cast expression (a type specifier enclosed in parentheses).

When applied to a structure type or variable, sizeof returns the actual size, which may include padding bytes inserted for alignment. When applied to a statically dimensioned array, sizeof returns the size of the entire array. The sizeof operator cannot return the size of dynamically allocated arrays or external arrays.

For related information, see Operators.

Example

// Example of the sizeof keyword
size_t  i = sizeof( int ); 

struct align_depends {
    char c;
    int i;
};
size_t size = sizeof(align_depends);  // The value of size depends on 
                                   //  the value set with /Zp or 
                                   //  #pragma pack

int  array[] = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };     // sizeof( array ) is 20 
                                      // sizeof( array[0] ) is 4 
size_t  sizearr =                        // Count of items in array
   sizeof( array ) / sizeof( array[0] );