hi all

[devsuv]

any one pls tell me about structure padding?

[blenda]

Hi,
Struture padding main usage is for handling memory alignment. This concept is particularly useful when in a structure variables of different sizes need to be put together in which case a boundary size is fixed and structure padding applied in this.

Blenda

[Adrian]

I have a rough idea about structure padding. It is adding of bits in structure of a C program internally. But I do not have idea about why is this added and how it gets added. I am waiting for someone to clarify this.

[sammy]

adrian you are right. Structure padding is addition of bits or padding bytes. In C we know that memory is allocated based on data type. That is for integer it is 2 bytes, for long 4 bytes and so on. Since structures are association of different data types to maintain byte boundary padding bytes takes place. This is the reason for structure padding.