What is the return type of sizeof operator?

Question

What is the return type of sizeof operator? cppreference.com & msdn says sizeof returns size_t. Does it really return a size_t? I\'m using VS2010 Professional, and targ

Answer 1

size_t is an alias of some implementation-defined unsigned integral type. In C++ opposite to C where sizeof operator may be applied to VLA arrays the operand of sizeof operator is not evaluated (at run time). It is a constant. If the value of sizeof operator can be fit into int type the compiler does not issue a warning. In the second example std::strlen is evaluated at run time so its result can do not fit into int so the compiler issues a warning. You could substitute std:;strlen with your own constexpr function (some recursive function). In this case if the result can fit into int I think that the compiler will not issue a warning.