Question

If I have a class as follows:

class MyData
{
public:
    MyData( const AnotherObject& obj );

    int getA() { return A; }
    int getB() { return B; }

private:
    int A : 16;
    int B : 16;
}

Will the fact that I have specified the variables A and B to take up only 16 bits be rendered pointless by the getters? If I pass an instance of this class around, and other objects want access to A and B but I want to preserve the sizing that I have specified, will I lose that because getA() and getB() will return 32-bit copies?

Would I be better off making A and B public and accessing them directly as required? Will this preserve the sizing? Or should I return references to them from the getters?

Answer 1

The getters will convert the 16 bit value to the size of the int on the system value and will return 32-bit copies (if the size is 32 bits).

What is it that you’re trying to achieve? Why not use int16_t from <cstdint>?