If I want to store the representation of a binary number into an array, does it make a difference to use [bool]
instead of [u8]
? Will each bool take 1 bit instead of 8 bits for u8?
No. bool
takes 1 byte.
If you want to save space, use a bitvector.
No, bool
occupies a full byte, but only 0
and 1
are valid raw values. That means there's a niche such that things like Option<bool>
are still only one byte, where None
takes an unused value (probably 2).
It is impossible to pack a slice of bools into bits, since the slice api states that for each element its address can be taken, and is just a usual pointer, but it's impossible to create pointers to individual bits.
If you want to pack bools into bits, consider using the bitvec or bitflags crates.
Why not check it for yourself using size_of
?
use std::mem::size_of;
println!("bools: {}, bytes: {}", size_of::<[bool; 8]>(), size_of::<[u8; 8]>());
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