System.Boolean Question.

hello, everybody.

today, i read msdn like usual, suddenly i found variable with type of
System.Boolean should take up 2 Bytes. it surprised me a lot. why a
boolean value should take up 2 bytes? in my option, 1 bit should be ok:)


// code.
if (value == ASC(0)) {
return System.Boolean.FALSE;
} else {
return System.Boolean.TRUE;
}



Best Regards,

Tyrone Chou
3/10/2006

re: System.Boolean Question.

"Tyrone Chou" <TyroneChou@MSN.Com> wrote in message
news:%23ME1hwLRGHA.4740@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> hello, everybody.
>
> today, i read msdn like usual, suddenly i found variable with type of
> System.Boolean should take up 2 Bytes. it surprised me a lot. why a
> boolean value should take up 2 bytes? in my option, 1 bit should be ok:)
>[/color]

Well, a bit is out of the question. While it is nice space wise, accesing a
single bit is likely far more expensive than the additional few bits used to
store it. Space isn't everything.

Also, FWIW, I'm pretty sure the base boolean type is 4 bytes, because modern
procesors work with groups of 4 bytes better than they do with one.[color=blue]
>
> // code.
> if (value == ASC(0)) {
> return System.Boolean.FALSE;
> } else {
> return System.Boolean.TRUE;
> }[/color]

I don't see why this code is here. Did you have a question with regards to
it?

re: System.Boolean Question.

>today, i read msdn like usual, suddenly i found variable with type of[color=blue]
>System.Boolean should take up 2 Bytes. it surprised me a lot. why a
>boolean value should take up 2 bytes?[/color]

It doesn't, it takes one byte (the smallest size you can address). You
can check that yourself with sizeof(bool). Any MSND topics that says
otherwise are wrong. If you want to store a lot of boolean values with
just a single bit each, use a BitArray.


Mattias

--
Mattias Sjögren [C# MVP] mattias @ mvps.org
http://www.msjogren.net/dotnet/ | http://www.dotnetinterop.com
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