C/C++ struct/class memory size and alignment

Feature Request

Visual Studio has this nice feature, which on struct/class hover shows a tooltip displaying it's memory size and alignment in bytes:

Can this be enabled in the VSCode official Microsoft Extension Pack?

Dolphin (@DolphinIQ)

Hi Dolphin (@DolphinIQ) . Thank you for this feature request. We prioritize feature requests based on up-votes (relative to other feature requests).

FYI, there's a pre-existing issue from 2020 with 20 upvotes at #6460 . It doesn't mention showing alignment info though.

My additional request is that, I would like to see member offsets and padding gaps in the struct.
And yes, the request is for VSCode, for C/C++ extension.

Would be very beneficial, especially when reverse engineering c/c++ code

I use cpptools for embedded systems, and IMO can be so much pleasure to work with that for measur/debug Wifi and RFID packets.

Dolphin (@DolphinIQ)

Dolphin (@DolphinIQ) White-Owl Alex Luiz (@lexcibien) The Dumb Dino (@The-Dumb-Dino) Fixed with https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/releases/tag/v1.35.3

Dolphin (@DolphinIQ)

Dolphin (@DolphinIQ) White-Owl Alex Luiz (@lexcibien) The Dumb Dino (@The-Dumb-Dino) Fixed with https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/releases/tag/v1.35.3

Thank you a lot, will take a look at it later

Heheey, that's pretty good, may i have an suggestion to it? Could it be typed 1 "byte" / 2 "bytes" instead of a single "B"? Anyone else agree?

Alex Luiz (@lexcibien)

Alex Luiz (@lexcibien) I think the problem with "byte" was some languages have up to 3 different translations depending on the value.

The term "byte" is used globally and is not translated into other languages due to strict international standards:

ISO/IEC 2382: This standard defines universal IT terminology (originally in English and French) specifically designed to be adopted directly into other languages without literal translation.
IEC 80000-13: This document officially standardizes the unit "byte" and establishes its international symbol as a capital B (while a bit uses a lowercase b).
The "Octet" Alternative: For languages that avoid English loanwords (like French), these same standards approved the term octet, which means a group of exactly 8 bits. This is also heavily used in global networking protocols.

Here in Brazil, we tend to use a lot of english words for things related to technology and engineering, just as Japan does.

Alex Luiz (@lexcibien)

Alex Luiz (@lexcibien) The handling of plural nouns is different for different languages -- the ISO/IEC 2382 does not eliminate normal grammatical pluralization in localized UI -- it standardizes terms and concepts.

Okay, i'm sure you got way more points to tell me it's better B than byte or bytes, but seriously, why not to go with many other tools already do. I got confused as i look into a different way to show the same information on different extensions. Practically, a non english user would get confused with an acronym instead of the whole word untranslated.

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C/C++ struct/class memory size and alignment #13034

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C/C++ struct/class memory size and alignment #13034

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Colengms commented on Dec 9, 2024

sean-mcmanus commented on Dec 9, 2024

White-Owl commented on Apr 24, 2025

The-Dumb-Dino commented on Jan 10, 2026

lexcibien commented on Mar 23, 2026

sean-mcmanus commented on Oct 7, 2026

The-Dumb-Dino commented on Oct 7, 2026

lexcibien commented on Oct 7, 2026

sean-mcmanus commented on Oct 7, 2026

lexcibien commented on Oct 13, 2026

lexcibien commented on Oct 13, 2026

sean-mcmanus commented on Oct 13, 2026

lexcibien commented on Oct 13, 2026

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