# Size of character (‘a’) in C/C++

## The Question :

311 people think this question is useful

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++?

The Question Comments :
• The "%|" format requires an int argument (or something that promotes to int). sizeof yields a result of type size_t. Either convert to int using a cast or, if your implementation supports it, use "%zu".

## The Answer 1

356 people think this answer is useful

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.

## The Answer 2

30 people think this answer is useful

As Paul stated, it’s because 'a' is an int in C but a char in C++.

I cover that specific difference between C and C++ in something I wrote a few years ago, at: http://david.tribble.com/text/cdiffs.htm

## The Answer 3

21 people think this answer is useful

In C the type of character literals are int and char in C++. This is in C++ required to support function overloading. See this example:

void foo(char c)
{
puts("char");
}
void foo(int i)
{
puts("int");
}
int main()
{
foo('i');
return 0;
}



Output:

char



## The Answer 4

7 people think this answer is useful

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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