Why Does `sizeof('a')` Differ in C and C ?

Why 'a' Requires More Bytes in C than C

When examining the output of the code snippet:

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
    printf("sizeof(char) = %zu\n", sizeof(char));
    printf("sizeof('a')  = %zu\n", sizeof('a'));
}

one may notice that the size of the character constant 'a' differs between C and C . Let's delve into the reasoning behind this disparity.

In C, a character constant like 'a' is stored as an int, which has a size of 4 bytes or an implementation-specific value. However, in C , the type of 'a' is explicitly char, which occupies only 1 byte.

This distinction stems from the different treatment of character constants in the two languages. C treats character constants as integers (of int type), while C introduces a separate char type for characters.

Therefore, in C, 'a' is stored as an integer, explaining its 4-byte size. In contrast, in C , 'a' is a character (char), resulting in a size of 1 byte. This difference highlights one of the subtle variations between the two languages.

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