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Sizeof

Sizeof

INT sizeof ( <datatype> )

Calculates the size of a block of memory. Returns the size in bytes.

Parameters

  • <datatype> - The type, i.e. any valid bennu datatypes. Can also be a user defined types or structs.

Return

  • INT : The size of the data type, in bytes.

Information

The sizeof() operator is used to calculate the size of datatypes. This is important for creating dynamic data structures wich are created with the functions alloc(), calloc() and realloc(). These three functions allocate space in bytes. For instance, an int in bennu is 4 bytes long. When dealing with data structures of self-defined types, it can be tedious to calculate the exact size manually. But this is not the only reason, for instance, when a linked list is created, the struct may be changed by the programmer, and in that case the size changes. By using sizeof(), you can avoid the problems of allocating too few or too much space.

Further Reading

General Wikipedia article about the use of sizeof: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizeof

Example 

// import modules
IMPORT "mod_say";
IMPORT "mod_debug";
IMPORT "mod_mem";

// user defined data type, should be 29 bytes in size.
TYPE custom_datatype;
   int cat;
   int dog;
   byte kind;
   char name[19];
END

GLOBAL

STRUCT custom_datatype2;

   char name[19];

   STRUCT animal[9];

      char remarks[255];

      int age;
      int speed;

      byte kind;
      byte fur_color;
      byte sound;
      byte num_legs;

      bool can_fly;
      bool has_horns;
   END
END

int var1;   // 4 bytes
byte var2;  // 1 byte
float var3; // 4 bytes
char text1[4]="hello";  // 5 bytes
string text2="world";   // 4 bytes, is sort of pointer thingy
int integer_array[255]; // (0-255), 256 x 4 bytes = 1024 bytes

PROCESS main();

BEGIN
   say("");
   say("");
   say("sizeof() demonstration");
   say("");
   say("");
   say ("the size of custom_datatype: "+sizeof(custom_datatype)+" is bytes");
   say ("the size of custom_datatype2: "+sizeof(custom_datatype2)+" is bytes");
   say ("the size of var1: "+sizeof(var1)+" is bytes");
   say ("the size of var2: "+sizeof(var2)+" is bytes");
   say ("the size of var3: "+sizeof(var3)+" is bytes");
   say ("the size of text1: "+sizeof(text1)+" is bytes");
   say ("the size of text2: "+sizeof(text2)+" is bytes");
   say ("the size of int_array: "+sizeof(integer_array)+" is bytes");
END

Used in example: alloc(), calloc(), realloc(), struct, type, say(), Global

PointerString