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Chapter 11: Problem 10

Look at the following code. union Values { int ivalue; double dvalue; }; Values v; Assuming that an int uses four bytes and a double uses eight bytes, how much memory does the variable v use?

Short Answer

Expert verified
Answer: 8 bytes.

Step by step solution

01

Understand union properties in programming languages

In programming languages like C and C++, a union is a special data structure that allows a single variable to store data of different types. The key feature of a union is that it uses memory equal to the size of the largest data type within the union to store any of its variables. That way, at any given time, a union variable can only store a single value from one of its member data types, but not all simultaneously.
02

Determine the memory size of the largest member of the union

In the given code, the union "Values" has two members: an integer (ivalue, 4 bytes) and a double (dvalue, 8 bytes). The largest member is the double (dvalue) which uses 8 bytes.
03

Find out the memory size used by the variable "v"

Since a union allocates memory equal to the largest data type member, the variable "v" (of type "Values") will use the memory size of the largest member within the union. In this case, the largest member is the double (dvalue), which uses 8 bytes. So, the variable "v" will also use 8 bytes of memory.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Declare a structure named tempscale, with the following members: fahrenheit: a double centigrade: a double Next, declare a structure named Reading, with the following members: windSpeed: an int humidity: a double temperature: a TempScale structure variable Next define a Reading structure variable.

True or False The structure pointer operator does not automatically dereference the structure pointer on its left.

Rewrite the following statement using the structure pointer operator: *(*strPtr).num = 10;

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