C++ vector max_size();

Question

On 32 bit System.

1. std::vector::max_size() returns 2³²-1, size of char — 1 byte
2. std::vecto

Answer 1

max_size() returns

the maximum potential size the vector could reach due to system or library implementation limitations.

so I suppose that the maximum value is implementation dependent. On my machine the following code

std::vector v;
cout << v.max_size();

produces output:

4611686018427387903 // built as 64-bit target
1073741823 // built as 32-bit target

so the formula 2^(64-size(type))-1 looks correct for that case as well.