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Why does a Boolean consume 4 bytes and a char 2 bytes in the .NET framework? A Boolean should take up 1bit or at least be smaller than a char.
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However, my C++ book (C++ Pocket Reference, O'Reilly) states: "The typical size of a bool is one byte," and "The size of a char is one byte. The size of a byte technically is implementation defined, but it is rarely anything but eight bits."
A bool takes in real 1 bit, as you need only 2 different values. However, when you do a sizeof(bool), it returns 1, meaning 1 byte. For practical reasons, the 7 bits remaining are stuffed.
Because it's fast. A 32-bit processor typically works with 32-bit values. Working with smaller values involves longer instructions, or extra logic.
It is a question of memory alignment. 4-byte variables work faster than 2-byte ones. This is the reason why you should use int instead of byte or short for counters and the like.
You should use 2-byte variables only when memory is a bigger concern than speed. And this is the reason why char (which is Unicode in .NET) takes two bytes instead of four.
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