boolean到底占几个字节？

今天在做题的时候遇到了一个关于boolean占几个字节的问题，带着疑问，随便网上一搜，答案五花八门，在Java中定义的八种基本数据类型中，除了其它七种类型都有明确的内存占用字节数外，就boolean类型没有给出具体的占用字节数。

根据http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/datatypes.html官方文档的描述：

• byte: The byte data type is an 8-bit signed two's complement integer. It has a minimum value of -128 and a maximum value of 127 (inclusive). The byte data type can be useful for saving memory in large arrays, where the memory savings actually matters. They can also be used in place of int where their limits help to clarify your code; the fact that a variable's range is limited can serve as a form of documentation.

• short: The short data type is a 16-bit signed two's complement integer. It has a minimum value of -32,768 and a maximum value of 32,767 (inclusive). As with byte, the same guidelines apply: you can use a short to save memory in large arrays, in situations where the memory savings actually matters.

• int: By default, the int data type is a 32-bit signed two's complement integer, which has a minimum value of -231 and a maximum value of 231-1. In Java SE 8 and later, you can use the int data type to represent an unsigned 32-bit integer, which has a minimum value of 0 and a maximum value of 232-1. Use the Integer class to use int data type as an unsigned integer. See the section The Number Classes for more information. Static methods like compareUnsigned, divideUnsigned etc have been added to the Integer class to support the arithmetic operations for unsigned integers.

• long: The long data type is a 64-bit two's complement integer. The signed long has a minimum value of -263 and a maximum value of 263-1. In Java SE 8 and later, you can use the long data type to represent an unsigned 64-bit long, which has a minimum value of 0 and a maximum value of 264-1. Use this data type when you need a range of values wider than those provided by int. The Long class also contains methods like compareUnsigned, divideUnsigned etc to support arithmetic operations for unsigned long.

• float: The float data type is a single-precision 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point. Its range of values is beyond the scope of this discussion, but is specified in the Floating-Point Types, Formats, and Values section of the Java Language Specification. As with the recommendations for byte and short, use a float (instead of double) if you need to save memory in large arrays of floating point numbers. This data type should never be used for precise values, such as currency. For that, you will need to use the java.math.BigDecimal class instead. Numbers and Strings covers BigDecimal and other useful classes provided by the Java platform.

• double: The double data type is a double-precision 64-bit IEEE 754 floating point. Its range of values is beyond the scope of this discussion, but is specified in the Floating-Point Types, Formats, and Values section of the Java Language Specification. For decimal values, this data type is generally the default choice. As mentioned above, this data type should never be used for precise values, such as currency.

• boolean: The boolean data type has only two possible values: true and false. Use this data type for simple flags that track true/false conditions. This data type represents one bit of information, but its "size" isn't something that's precisely defined.(布尔数据类型只有两个可能的值：true 和 false。将此数据类型用于跟踪真/假条件的简单标志。此数据类型表示一位信息，但其“大小”不是精确定义的内容。)

• char: The char data type is a single 16-bit Unicode character. It has a minimum value of '\u0000' (or 0) and a maximum value of '\uffff' (or 65,535 inclusive).

1、1个bit

理由是boolean类型的值只有true和false两种逻辑值，在编译后会使用1和0来表示，这两个数在内存中只需要1位（bit）即可存储，位是计算机最小的存储单位。

2、1个字节

理由是虽然编译后1和0只需占用1位空间，但计算机处理数据的最小单位是1个字节，1个字节等于8位，实际存储的空间是：用1个字节的最低位存储，其他7位用0填补，如果值是true的话则存储的二进制为：0000 0001，如果是false的话则存储的二进制为：0000 0000。

3、4个字节

理由来源是《Java虚拟机规范》一书中的描述：“虽然定义了boolean这种数据类型，但是只对它提供了非常有限的支持。在Java虚拟机中没有任何供boolean值专用的字节码指令，Java语言表达式所操作的boolean值，在编译之后都使用Java虚拟机中的int数据类型来代替，而boolean数组将会被编码成Java虚拟机的byte数组，每个元素boolean元素占8位”。这样我们可以得出boolean类型占了单独使用是4个字节，在数组中又是1个字节。

总结

在《Java虚拟机规范》给出了单个boolean占4个字节，和boolean数组1个字节的定义，具体 还要看虚拟机实现是否按照规范来，所以1个字节、4个字节都是有可能的。