Question

In Java, a byte or short is stored in the JVM’s ‘natural’ word length, i.e. for the most part, 32-bits. An exception would be an array of bytes, where each byte occupies a byte of memory.

Does the CLR do the same thing?

If it does do this, in what situations are there exceptions to this? E.g. How much memory does this occupy?

struct MyStruct
{
    short s1;
    short s2;
}

Answer 1

Although it’s not really intended for this purpose, and may at times give slightly different answers (because it’s thinking about things from a Marshalling point of view, not a CLR internal structures point of view), Marhsal.SizeOf can give an answer:

System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(MyStruct))

In this case, it answers 4. (i.e. the shorts are being stored as shorts). Please note that this is an implementation detail, so the answer today should not be relied upon for any purpose.