How much memory do Enums take?

Question

For example if I have an Enum with two cases, does it make take more memory than a boolean? Languages: Java, C++

Answer 1

bool might be implemented as a single byte, but typically in a structure it would be surrounded by other elements that have alignment requirements that would mean that the boolean would effectively be occupying at least as much space as an int.

Modern processors load data from main memory as a whole cache line, 64 bytes. The difference between loading one byte from L1 cache and loading four bytes is negligible.

If you're trying to optimise for cache lines in a very high-performance application, then you might worry about how big your enum is, but generally I'd say it's clearer to define an enum than to use a boolean.