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)

Technical Specifications

 

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)

integer_sequence (C++14)

Swap, forward and move

swap

exchange (C++14)

forward (C++11)

move (C++11)

move_if_noexcept (C++11)

Type operations

declval (C++11)

as_const (C++17)

 

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
Type categories
is_void (C++11) is_null_pointer (C++14) 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_final (C++14) 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)
Type trait constants
integral_constantbool_constanttrue_typefalse_type (C++11)(C++17)(C++11)(C++11)
Metafunctions
conjunction (C++17)
disjunction (C++17)
negation (C++17)

Supported operations
is_constructibleis_trivially_constructibleis_nothrow_constructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_default_constructibleis_trivially_default_constructibleis_nothrow_default_constructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_copy_constructibleis_trivially_copy_constructibleis_nothrow_copy_constructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_move_constructibleis_trivially_move_constructibleis_nothrow_move_constructible (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_assignableis_trivially_assignableis_nothrow_assignable (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_copy_assignableis_trivially_copy_assignableis_nothrow_copy_assignable (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_move_assignableis_trivially_move_assignableis_nothrow_move_assignable (C++11)(C++11)(C++11)
is_destructibleis_trivially_destructibleis_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_cvremove_constremove_volatile (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) add_cvadd_constadd_volatile (C++11)(C++11)(C++11) make_signed (C++11) make_unsigned (C++11)	remove_reference (C++11) add_lvalue_referenceadd_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) void_t (C++17)	conditional (C++11) common_type (C++11) underlying_type (C++11) result_of (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.

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

If member is a static member or a member function, 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';
}

Possible 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)
C documentation for offsetof