What is size_t in C?

Question

I am getting confused with size_t in C. I know that it is returned by the sizeof operator. But what exactly is it? Is it a data type?

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Answer 1

size_t is a type that can hold any array index.

Depending on the implementation, it can be any of:

unsigned char

unsigned short

unsigned int

unsigned long

unsigned long long

Here's how size_t is defined in stddef.h of my machine:

typedef unsigned long size_t;