C++ : why bool is 8 bits long?

c++ boolean size
Jérôme picture Jérôme · Jan 14, 2010 · Viewed 68.9k times · Source

In C++, I'm wondering why the bool type is 8 bits long (on my system), where only one bit is enough to hold the boolean value ?

I used to believe it was for performance reasons, but then on a 32 bits or 64 bits machine, where registers are 32 or 64 bits wide, what's the performance advantage ?

Or is it just one of these 'historical' reasons ?

Answer

jalf picture jalf · Jan 14, 2010

Because every C++ data type must be addressable.

How would you create a pointer to a single bit? You can't. But you can create a pointer to a byte. So a boolean in C++ is typically byte-sized. (It may be larger as well. That's up to the implementation. The main thing is that it must be addressable, so no C++ datatype can be smaller than a byte)

Related questions

What is the printf format specifier for bool?

Since ANSI C99 there is _Bool or bool via stdbool.h. But is there also a printf format specifier for bool? I mean something like in that pseudo code: bool x = true; printf("%B\n", x); which would print: true

Read More
Easiest way to flip a boolean value?

I just want to flip a boolean based on what it already is. If it's true - make it false. If it's false - make it true. Here is my code excerpt: switch(wParam) { case VK_F11: if (flipVal == true) { …

Read More
Converting bool to text in C++

Maybe this is a dumb question, but is there any way to convert a boolean value to a string such that 1 turns to "true" and 0 turns to "false"? I could just use an if statement, but it would be nice …

Read More