C datatype, enumerator

Hi

Is there any method to restrict the enumerated variable in C to occupy only one byte? I am using gcc (GCC) versin 4.0.0...

please comment

thanks

I'm pretty sure an enum is supposed to take only as much space as it needs. There is a compiler switch in gcc that tells it to always use int as storage size but that should be off by default.

In general, no there isn't.
In C, enums are just named integers, so that is what their size is. C++ makes a better job of it on the size front.
http://david.tribble.com/text/cdiffs.htm#C99-enum-const

Did you think of doing this?

Originally Posted by gcc manual

-fshort-enums
Allocate to an enum type only as many bytes as it needs for the declared range of possible values. Specifically, the enum type will be equivalent to the smallest integer type which has enough room.

Warning: the -fshort-enums switch causes GCC to generate code that is not binary compatible with code generated without that switch. Use it to conform to a non-default application binary interface.

Would it not be legal to cast it into 1 byte?

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

enum foo_t {
    FOO_TEST=0,
    FOO_BAR
};

int main(void)
{
    char abc = (char)FOO_TEST;
    return 0;
}

Or have I completely missed the point?