如果你是经验主义者，

echo | gcc -E -xc -include 'stddef.h' - | grep size_t

输出Ubuntu 14.04 64位GCC 4.8:

typedef long unsigned int size_t;

注意，stddef.h是由GCC提供的，而不是GCC 4.2中src/ GCC /ginclude/stddef.h下的glibc。

有趣的C99外观

Malloc以size_t作为参数，因此它决定了可以分配的最大大小。 由于它也是由sizeof返回的，我认为它限制了任何数组的最大大小。 请参见:C语言中数组的最大大小是多少?

根据我的理解，size_t是一个无符号整数，其位大小足以容纳本机体系结构的指针。

So:

sizeof(size_t) >= sizeof(void*)

Size_t是无符号类型。因此，它不能表示任何负值(<0)。当你在计算某物，并且确定它不是负的时候，你就会用到它。例如，strlen()返回size_t，因为字符串的长度必须至少为0。

在您的示例中，如果循环索引总是大于0，那么使用size_t或任何其他无符号数据类型可能是有意义的。

当使用size_t对象时，必须确保在使用它的所有上下文中(包括算术)都需要非负值。例如，假设你有:

size_t s1 = strlen(str1);
size_t s2 = strlen(str2);

你想求出str2和str1的长度之差。你不能:

int diff = s2 - s1; /* bad */

这是因为赋给diff的值总是一个正数，即使s2 < s1，因为计算是用无符号类型完成的。在这种情况下，根据您的用例，对于s1和s2使用int(或long long)可能会更好。

C/POSIX中有一些函数可以/应该使用size_t，但由于历史原因不使用。例如，fgets的第二个参数理想情况下应该是size_t，但它是int。

types.h的manpage说:

Size_t应该是无符号整数类型

Since nobody has yet mentioned it, the primary linguistic significance of size_t is that the sizeof operator returns a value of that type. Likewise, the primary significance of ptrdiff_t is that subtracting one pointer from another will yield a value of that type. Library functions that accept it do so because it will allow such functions to work with objects whose size exceeds UINT_MAX on systems where such objects could exist, without forcing callers to waste code passing a value larger than "unsigned int" on systems where the larger type would suffice for all possible objects.

从维基百科:

According to the 1999 ISO C standard (C99), size_t is an unsigned integer type of at least 16 bit (see sections 7.17 and 7.18.3). size_tis an unsigned data type defined by several C/C++ standards, e.g. the C99 ISO/IEC 9899 standard, that is defined in stddef.h.1 It can be further imported by inclusion of stdlib.h as this file internally sub includes stddef.h. This type is used to represent the size of an object. Library functions that take or return sizes expect them to be of type or have the return type of size_t. Further, the most frequently used compiler-based operator sizeof should evaluate to a constant value that is compatible with size_t.

作为暗示，size_t是保证保存任何数组下标的类型。