boolean operator in c++

Question

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What does 'unsigned temp:3' mean?

I saw some c++ code today that used single colons.

bool variable_name : 1;

what is the difference between this and

bool variable_name = true;

Did you find it inside a struct? – Mysticial Aug 15 '12 at 19:44 — Mysticial, Aug 15 '12 at 19:44
@HotLicks In another language maybe... – Pascal Cuoq Aug 15 '12 at 19:48 — Pascal Cuoq, Aug 15 '12 at 19:48

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 15 '12 at 19:46

The ": 1" means it is a bit field with 1 bit, or at least that's what it means in C. It probably was put there to save some memory, allowing multiple bools to be stored in the same byte. The downside is that you probably can't make a pointer to that bool.

boolean operator in c++

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