Size of character ('a') in C/C++

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What is the size of character in C and C++ ? As far as I know the size of char is 1 byte in both C and C++.

In C:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
    printf("Size of char : %d\n", sizeof(char));
    return 0;
}

In C++:

#include <iostream>
int main()
{
    std::cout << "Size of char : " << sizeof(char) << "\n";
    return 0;
}

No surprises, both of them gives the output : Size of char : 1

Now we know that characters are represented as 'a','b','c','|',... So I just modified the above codes to these:

In C:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
    char a = 'a';
    printf("Size of char : %d\n", sizeof(a));
    printf("Size of char : %d\n", sizeof('a'));
    return 0;
}

Output:

Size of char : 1
Size of char : 4

In C++:

#include <iostream>
int main()
{
    char a = 'a';
    std::cout << "Size of char : " << sizeof(a) << "\n";
    std::cout << "Size of char : " << sizeof('a') << "\n";
    return 0;
}

Output:

Size of char : 1
Size of char : 1

Why the sizeof('a') returns different values in C and C++?

c c++ types
4 Answers

In C, the type of a character constant like 'a' is actually an int, with size of 4 (or some other implementation-dependent value). In C++, the type is char, with size of 1. This is one of many small differences between the two languages.

Admin1

In C language, character literal is not a char type. C considers character literal as integer. So, there is no difference between sizeof('a') and sizeof(1).

So, the sizeof character literal is equal to sizeof integer in C.

In C++ language, character literal is type of char. The cppreference say's:

1) narrow character literal or ordinary character literal, e.g. 'a' or '\n' or '\13'. Such literal has type char and the value equal to the representation of c-char in the execution character set. If c-char is not representable as a single byte in the execution character set, the literal has type int and implementation-defined value.

So, in C++ character literal is a type of char. so, size of character literal in C++ is one byte.

Alos, In your programs, you have used wrong format specifier for sizeof operator.

C11 §7.21.6.1 (P9) :

If a conversion specification is invalid, the behavior is undefined.275) If any argument is not the correct type for the corresponding conversion specification, the behavior is undefined.

So, you should use %zu format specifier instead of %d, otherwise it is undefined behaviour in C.

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