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<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="align.vocabulary"></a><a class="link" href="vocabulary.html" title="Vocabulary">Vocabulary</a>
</h2></div></div></div>
<h4>
<a name="align.vocabulary.h0"></a>
      <span class="phrase"><a name="align.vocabulary.basic_align"></a></span><a class="link" href="vocabulary.html#align.vocabulary.basic_align">[basic.align]</a>
    </h4>
<p>
      Object types have <span class="bold"><strong>alignment requirements</strong></span> which
      place restrictions on the addresses at which an object of that type may be
      allocated. An <span class="bold"><strong>alignment</strong></span> is an implementation-defined
      integer value representing the number of bytes between successive addresses
      at which a given object can be allocated. An object type imposes an alignment
      requirement on every object of that type; stricter alignment can be requested
      using the alignment specifier.
    </p>
<p>
      A <span class="bold"><strong>fundamental alignment</strong></span> is represented by
      an alignment less than or equal to the greatest alignment supported by the
      implementation in all contexts, which is equal to <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">alignof</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">max_align_t</span><span class="special">)</span></code>.
      The alignment required for a type might be different when it is used as the
      type of a complete object and when it is used as the type of a subobject.
    </p>
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<th align="left">Tip</th>
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<pre class="programlisting"><span class="keyword">struct</span> <span class="identifier">B</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="keyword">long</span> <span class="keyword">double</span> <span class="identifier">d</span><span class="special">;</span> <span class="special">};</span>
<span class="keyword">struct</span> <span class="identifier">D</span> <span class="special">:</span> <span class="keyword">virtual</span> <span class="identifier">B</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="keyword">char</span> <span class="identifier">c</span><span class="special">;</span> <span class="special">};</span>
</pre>
<p>
        When <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">D</span></code> is the type of a complete
        object, it will have a subobject of type <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">B</span></code>,
        so it must be aligned appropriately for a <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">long</span>
        <span class="keyword">double</span></code>. If <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">D</span></code>
        appears as a subobject of another object that also has <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">B</span></code>
        as a virtual base class, the <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">B</span></code>
        subobject might be part of a different subobject, reducing the alignment
        requirements on the <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">D</span></code> subobject.
      </p>
</td></tr>
</table></div>
<p>
      The result of the <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">alignof</span></code> operator
      reflects the alignment requirement of the type in the complete-object case.
    </p>
<p>
      An <span class="bold"><strong>extended alignment</strong></span> is represented by an
      alignment greater than <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">alignof</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">max_align_t</span><span class="special">)</span></code>.
      It is implementation-defined whether any extended alignments are supported
      and the contexts in which they are supported. A type having an extended alignment
      requirement is an <span class="bold"><strong>over-aligned type</strong></span>.
    </p>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../../../doc/src/images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
        Every over-aligned type is or contains a class type to which extended alignment
        applies (possibly through a non-static data member).
      </p></td></tr>
</table></div>
<p>
      Alignments are represented as values of the type <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">size_t</span></code>.
      Valid alignments include only those values returned by an <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">alignof</span></code>
      expression for the fundamental types plus an additional implementation-defined
      set of values, which may be empty. Every alignment value shall be a non-negative
      integral power of two.
    </p>
<p>
      Alignments have an order from <span class="bold"><strong>weaker</strong></span> to <span class="bold"><strong>stronger</strong></span> or <span class="bold"><strong>stricter</strong></span>
      alignments. Stricter alignments have larger alignment values. An address that
      satisfies an alignment requirement also satisfies any weaker valid alignment
      requirement.
    </p>
<p>
      The alignment requirement of a complete type can be queried using an <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">alignof</span></code> expression. Furthermore, the types
      <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">char</span></code>, <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">signed</span>
      <span class="keyword">char</span></code>, and <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">unsigned</span>
      <span class="keyword">char</span></code> shall have the weakest alignment
      requirement.
    </p>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../../../doc/src/images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
        This enables the character types to be used as the underlying type for an
        aligned memory area.
      </p></td></tr>
</table></div>
<p>
      Comparing alignments is meaningful and provides the obvious results:
    </p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
          Two alignments are equal when their numeric values are equal.
        </li>
<li class="listitem">
          Two alignments are different when their numeric values are not equal.
        </li>
<li class="listitem">
          When an alignment is larger than another it represents a stricter alignment.
        </li>
</ul></div>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../../../doc/src/images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
        The runtime pointer alignment function can be used to obtain an aligned pointer
        within a buffer; the aligned-storage templates in the library can be used
        to obtain aligned storage.
      </p></td></tr>
</table></div>
<p>
      If a request for a specific extended alignment in a specific context is not
      supported by an implementation, the program is ill-formed. Additionally, a
      request for runtime allocation of dynamic storage for which the requested alignment
      cannot be honored shall be treated as an allocation failure.
    </p>
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        Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0.
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