When to use std::size_t?

Asked 2009-12-23T09:02:01.297

280

I'm just wondering should I use std::size_t for loops and stuff instead of int? For instance:

#include <cstdint>

int main()
{
    for (std::size_t i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
        // std::size_t OK here? Or should I use, say, unsigned int instead?
    }
}

In general, what is the best practice regarding when to use std::size_t?

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3 Answers

241

A good rule of thumb is for anything that you need to compare in the loop condition against something that is naturally a std::size_t itself.

std::size_t is the type of any sizeof expression and as is guaranteed to be able to express the maximum size of any object (including any array) in C++. By extension it is also guaranteed to be big enough for any array index so it is a natural type for a loop by index over an array.

If you are just counting up to a number then it may be more natural to use either the type of the variable that holds that number or an int or unsigned int (if large enough) as these should be a natural size for the machine.

answered 2009-12-23T09:09:16.667

The size_t type is meant to specify the size of something so it's natural to use it, for example, getting the length of a string and then processing each character:

for (size_t i = 0, max = strlen (str); i < max; i++)
    doSomethingWith (str[i]);

You do have to watch out for boundary conditions of course, since it's an unsigned type. The boundary at the top end is not usually that important since the maximum is usually large (though it is possible to get there). Most people just use an int for that sort of thing because they rarely have structures or arrays that get big enough to exceed the capacity of that int.

But watch out for things like:

for (size_t i = strlen (str) - 1; i >= 0; i--)

which will cause an infinite loop due to the wrapping behaviour of unsigned values (although I've seen compilers warn against this). This can also be alleviated by the (slightly harder to understand but at least immune to wrapping problems):

for (size_t i = strlen (str); i-- > 0; )

By shifting the decrement into a post-check side-effect of the continuation condition, this does the check for continuation on the value before decrement, but still uses the decremented value inside the loop (which is why the loop runs from len .. 1 rather than len-1 .. 0).

answered 2009-12-23T09:16:31.123

size_t is an unsigned type that can hold maximum integer value for your architecture, so it is protected from integer overflows due to sign (signed int 0x7FFFFFFF incremented by 1 will give you -1) or short size (unsigned short int 0xFFFF incremented by 1 will give you 0).

It is mainly used in array indexing/loops/address arithmetic and so on. Functions like memset() and alike accept size_t only, because theoretically you may have a block of memory of size 2^32-1 (on 32bit platform).

For such simple loops don't bother and use just int.

answered 2009-12-23T09:35:39.273

When to use std::size_t?

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