std::alignment_of

 

C++

Compiler support

Freestanding and hosted

Language

Standard library

Standard library headers

Named requirements

Feature test macros (C++20)

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Metaprogramming library (C++11)

Diagnostics library

General utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Localizations library

Input/output library

Filesystem library (C++17)

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Concurrency support library (C++11)

Execution support library (C++26)

Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

Utilities library

Language support Type support (basic types, RTTI) Library feature-test macros (C++20) Dynamic memory management Program utilities Coroutine support (C++20) Variadic functions is_constant_evaluated (C++20) is_within_lifetime (C++26) initializer_list (C++11) source_location (C++20) Three-way comparison three_way_comparablethree_way_comparable_with (C++20)(C++20) strong_ordering (C++20) weak_ordering (C++20) partial_ordering (C++20) common_comparison_category (C++20) compare_three_way_result (C++20) compare_three_way (C++20) strong_order (C++20) weak_order (C++20) partial_order (C++20) compare_strong_order_fallback (C++20) compare_weak_order_fallback (C++20) compare_partial_order_fallback (C++20)   is_eqis_ltis_lteq (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)   is_neqis_gtis_gteq (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)

General utilities Date and time Function objects Formatting library (C++20)   bitset hash (C++11) Relational operators (deprecated in C++20) rel_ops::operator!=rel_ops::operator>    rel_ops::operator<=rel_ops::operator>= Integer comparison functions cmp_equalcmp_lesscmp_less_than (C++20)(C++20)(C++20)   cmp_not_equalcmp_greatercmp_greater_than (C++20)(C++20)(C++20) in_range (C++20) Swap and type operations swap ranges::swap (C++20) exchange (C++14) declval (C++11) to_underlying (C++23) forward (C++11) forward_like (C++23) move (C++11) move_if_noexcept (C++11) as_const (C++17) Common vocabulary types pair tuple (C++11) optional (C++17) any (C++17) variant (C++17) tuple_size (C++11) tuple_element (C++11) apply (C++17) make_from_tuple (C++17) expected (C++23) Elementary string conversions to_chars (C++17) from_chars (C++17) chars_format (C++17) to_chars_result (C++17) from_chars_result (C++17)

 

Type support

Basic types
Fixed width integer types (C++11)
Fixed width floating-point types (C++23)
ptrdiff_t size_t max_align_t (C++11)     byte (C++17)	nullptr_t (C++11) offsetof NULL
Numeric limits
numeric_limits
C numeric limits interface
Runtime type information
type_info type_index (C++11)	bad_typeid bad_cast

 

Defined in header <type_traits>
template< class T > struct alignment_of;		(since C++11)

Provides the member constant value equal to the alignment requirement of the type T, as if obtained by an alignof expression. If T is an array type, returns the alignment requirements of the element type. If T is a reference type, returns the alignment requirements of the type referred to.

If alignof(T) is not a valid expression, the behavior is undefined.

Helper variable template

template< class T > constexpr std::size_t alignment_of_v = alignment_of<T>::value;		(since C++17)

Inherited from std::integral_constant

Member constants

value [static]

alignof(T) (public static member constant)

Member functions

operator std::size_t	converts the object to std::size_t, returns value (public member function)
operator() (C++14)	returns value (public member function)

Member types

Type	Definition
value_type	std::size_t
type	std::integral_constant<std::size_t, value>

Possible implementation

template< class T > struct alignment_of : std::integral_constant< std::size_t, alignof(T) > {};

Notes

This type trait predates the alignof keyword, which can be used to obtain the same value with less verbosity.

Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <type_traits>
 
class A {};
 
int main() 
{
    std::cout << std::alignment_of<A>::value << '\n';
    std::cout << std::alignment_of<int>() << '\n'; // c++14 alt syntax
    std::cout << std::alignment_of_v<double> << '\n'; // c++17 alt syntax
}

Output:

1
4
8

See also

alignof operator(C++11)	queries alignment requirements of a type
aligned_storage (C++11)(deprecated in C++23)	defines the type suitable for use as uninitialized storage for types of given size (class template)
aligned_union (C++11)(deprecated in C++23)	defines the type suitable for use as uninitialized storage for all given types (class template)
max_align_t (C++11)	trivial type with alignment requirement as great as any other scalar type (typedef)
std::experimental::alignment_of_v (library fundamentals TS)	variable template alias of std::alignment_of::value (variable template)