Compile-time check to make sure that there is no padding anywhere in a struct

Question

Is there a way to write a compile-time assertion that checks if some type has any padding in it?

For example:

struct This_Should_Succeed
{
    int a;
    int b;
    int c;
};

struct This_Should_Fail
{
    int a;
    char b;
    // because there are 3 bytes of padding here
    int c;
};

Answer 1

Since C++17 you might be able to use std::has_unique_object_representations.

#include <type_traits>

static_assert(std::has_unique_object_representations_v<This_Should_Succeed>); // succeeds
static_assert(std::has_unique_object_representations_v<This_Should_Fail>); // fails

Although, this might not do exactly what you want it to do. Check the linked cppreference page for details.