Memory size of Javascript Boolean

Introduction

Javascript in the browser works a level above Javascript Engine (V8, Rhino, JavaScriptCore, SpiderMonkey). These engines follow the ECMAScript Standards. ECMAScript defines the standard for the scripting language. [1]

In this post, we will use V8 Engine by Google. The V8 Engine:

• The V8 Engine is written in C++ and used in Chrome & in Node.js, among others.
• It implements the ECMAScript Standard as specified in ECMA-262. [1]

More specific documentation of the V8 Engine is available at docs.

The main scheme of compilation JavaScript code to Machine Code:

Each object takes a specific size in memory and C++ or ECMAScript specify on this size.

Boolean

Size: 4 bytes or 1 byte

A boolean is actually 1 byte. But alignment may cause 4 bytes to be used on a 32-bit platform or 8 bytes on a 64-bit platform. This old trick comes from the observation that allocated memory takes up at least 4 or 8 bytes, and are aligned in the way that the least significant bit or three will be zero.

In C++, the size of the type boolean is implementation-defined (expr.sizeof[p1]) and is usually equal to 1 (the size of the type char, and the smallest size a type can have), but is not required to be (expr.sizeof[fn77]): in particular, in Visual Studio up to version 4.2, it was 4. More information about C++ boolean values is available at docs[expr.sizeof(7.6.2.4)].

Resources

[1] –– https://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm

[2] –– https://www.quora.com/In-C%2B%2B-what-is-the-size-of-type-bool/answer/Sergey-Zubkov-1?ch=10&share=2471829a&srid=lXWU

[3] –– https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/understanding-the-core-of-nodejs-the-powerful-chrome-v8-engine-79e7eb8af964/

[4] –– https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32733314/in-v8-how-are-primitive-types-such-as-null-undefined-and-boolean-stored-in-me