Understanding sizeof(char) in 32 bit C compilers

Question

(sizeof) char always returns 1 in 32 bit GCC compiler.

But since the basic block size in 32 bit compiler is 4, How does char occup

Answer 1

It works the same way as using half a piece of paper. You use one part for a char and the other part for something else. The compiler will hide this from you since loading and storing a char into a 32bit processor register depends on the processor.

Some processors have instructions to load and store only parts of the 32bit others have to use binary operations to extract the value of a char.

Addressing a char works as it is AFAIR by definition the smallest addressable memory. On a 32bit system pointers to two different ints will be at least 4 address points apart, char addresses will be only 1 apart.