C++ Programming - sizeof()

An empty class doesn't have any data members or member functions. Therefore, the size of an instance is seemingly zero. However, C++ guarantees that the size of a complete object is never zero. Consider the following example:

class Empty {};
Empty e; // e occupies at least 1 byte of memory

If an object is allowed to occupy zero bytes of storage, its address can overlap with the address of a different object. The most obvious case is an array of empty objects whose elements all have an identical address. To guarantee that a complete object always has a distinct memory address, a complete object occupies at least one byte of memory. Non-complete objects -- for example, base class subobjects in a derived class -- can occupy zero bytes of memory.

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