offsetof

 

C++

Language

Standard library headers

Concepts

Utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Algorithms library

Iterators library

Numerics library

Input/output library

Localizations library

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Atomic operations library (C++11)

Thread support library (C++11)

 

Utilities library

Type support (basic types, RTTI, type traits)

Dynamic memory management

Error handling

Program utilities

Variadic functions

Date and time

Function objects

initializer_list (C++11)

bitset

hash (C++11)

Relational operators

rel_ops::operator!= rel_ops::operator> rel_ops::operator<= rel_ops::operator>=

Pairs and tuples

pair

tuple (C++11)

piecewise_construct_t (C++11)

piecewise_construct (C++11)

Swap, forward and move

swap

forward (C++11)

move (C++11)

move_if_noexcept (C++11)

declval (C++11)

 

Type support

Basic types
Fundamental types
Fixed width integer types (C++11)
ptrdiff_t size_t max_align_t (C++11)	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
Type traits
Primary type categories
is_void (C++11) is_array (C++11) is_pointer (C++11) is_enum (C++11) is_union (C++11) is_class (C++11) is_function (C++11)	is_object (C++11) is_scalar (C++11) is_compound (C++11) is_integral (C++11) is_floating_point (C++11) is_fundamental (C++11) is_arithmetic (C++11)
is_reference (C++11)
is_lvalue_reference (C++11)
is_rvalue_reference (C++11)
is_member_pointer (C++11)
is_member_object_pointer (C++11)
is_member_function_pointer (C++11)

Type properties
is_const (C++11) is_volatile (C++11) is_pod (C++11) is_empty (C++11) is_polymorphic (C++11) is_abstract (C++11)	is_trivial (C++11) is_trivially_copyable (C++11) is_standard_layout (C++11) is_literal_type (C++11) is_signed (C++11) is_unsigned (C++11)

Supported operations
is_constructible is_trivially_constructible is_nothrow_constructible (C++11) (C++11) (C++11)
is_default_constructible is_trivially_default_constructible is_nothrow_default_constructible (C++11) (C++11) (C++11)
is_copy_constructible is_trivially_copy_constructible is_nothrow_copy_constructible (C++11) (C++11) (C++11)
is_move_constructible is_trivially_move_constructible is_nothrow_move_constructible (C++11) (C++11) (C++11)
is_assignable is_trivially_assignable is_nothrow_assignable (C++11) (C++11) (C++11)
is_copy_assignable is_trivially_copy_assignable is_nothrow_copy_assignable (C++11) (C++11) (C++11)
is_move_assignable is_trivially_move_assignable is_nothrow_move_assignable (C++11) (C++11) (C++11)
is_destructible is_trivially_destructible is_nothrow_destructible (C++11) (C++11) (C++11)
has_virtual_destructor (C++11)
Relationships and property queries
is_same (C++11) is_base_of (C++11) is_convertible (C++11)	alignment_of (C++11) rank (C++11) extent (C++11)
Type modifications
remove_cv remove_const remove_volatile (C++11) (C++11) (C++11) add_cv add_const add_volatile (C++11) (C++11) (C++11) make_signed (C++11) make_unsigned (C++11)	remove_reference (C++11) add_lvalue_reference add_rvalue_reference (C++11) (C++11) remove_pointer (C++11) add_pointer (C++11) remove_extent (C++11) remove_all_extents (C++11)
Type transformations
aligned_storage (C++11) aligned_union (C++11) decay (C++11) enable_if (C++11)	conditional (C++11) common_type (C++11) underlying_type (C++11) result_of (C++11)
Type trait constants
integral_constant (C++11)

 

Defined in header <cstddef>
#define offsetof(type, member) /*implementation-defined*/

The macro offsetof expands to a constant of type std::size_t, the value of which is the offset, in bytes, from the beginning of an object of specified type to its specified member, including padding if any.

Notes

If type is not a standard-layout type, the behavior is undefined.

If member is a static member or a function member, the behavior is undefined.

The offset of the first member of a standard-layout type is always zero (empty-base optimization is mandatory)

Possible implementation

#define offsetof(type,member) ((std::size_t) &(((type*)0)->member))

Example

run this code

#include <iostream>
#include <cstddef>
struct S {
    char c;
    double d;
};
int main()
{
    std::cout << "the first element is at offset " << offsetof(S, c) << '\n'
              << "the double is at offset " << offsetof(S, d) << '\n';
}

Output:

the first element is at offset 0
the double is at offset 8

See also

size_t	unsigned integer type returned by the sizeof operator (typedef)
is_standard_layout (C++11)	checks if a type is standard-layout type (class template)