Thread: dubious sizeof operator

Code:

code:

printf("%d %d %d",sizeof(3),sizeof('3'),sizeof("3"));

Code:

ans:

4    4    2

can somone tell me why sizeof('3') comes out to be 4 though it is a character of size 1.
thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by bithub

In C, a character constant is an integer (weird huh?). In C++ though, a character constant is an actual character, and should give you a value of 1.

good that i asked. I couldnt have figured out that one. Man, why to keep a character const. an integer! I think thats why they developed C++ to remove its faults!!!!!

Originally Posted by lazy_hack

good that i asked. I couldnt have figured out that one. Man, why to keep a character const. an integer! I think thats why they developed C++ to remove its faults!!!!!

machine only understands number, you got that?
therefore, in order to represent a character, each unique number is assigned to a character. Example: 0x41 is char 'A', so whenever you print out 0x41, machine will translate it into letter 'A', ok?

sizeof: is a macro that accepts a number as its param.
'3' <--- is a letter but the macro sizeof only accept number, then it will translate '3' into its assigned number, which is 0x41. By default, this number is an int, that is 4-byte in size. Therefore, the result is 4, instead of 2.