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Standard Size of character ('a') in C/C++ on Linux


In C++ the size of the character literal is char. In C the type of character literal is integer (int). So in C the sizeof(‘a’) is 4 for 32bit architecture, and CHAR_BIT is 8. But the sizeof(char) is one byte for both C and C++.

Example Code

#include<stdio.h>
main() {
   printf("%d", sizeof('a'));
}

Output

1

Example Code

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
main() {
   cout << sizeof('a');
}

Output

1

In both cases, we are doing the same. But in C sizeof(‘a’) returns 4 as it is treated as an integer. But in C++ it is returning 1. It is treated as a character.