Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!buengc!bph
From: bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Isn't sizeof an operator?
Message-ID: <2352@buengc.BU.EDU>
Date: 20 Mar 89 20:32:14 GMT
References: <123@riunite.ACA.MCC.COM>
Reply-To: bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton)
Followup-To: comp.lang.c++
Organization: Boston Univ. Col. of Eng.
Lines: 13

In article <123@riunite.ACA.MCC.COM> rfg@riunite.UUCP (Ron Guilmette) writes:
["why isn't sizeof declarable as an operator?"]

Because it's a compiler directive, not a C-language operator.  The
result of sizeof (something) is an integer _constant_.  If you try to
take the size of something that has a varying size, you will get only
the size of that thing at compile time.

If you're creating varying-sized data elements, you should keep track of
their sizes yourself.

				--Blair
				  "But I don't know why you would..."