unsigned char bits = sizeof(X) << 3;

其中X是char,int,long等。会得到X的比特大小。

当涉及到不同架构和不同编译器的内置类型时，只需在你的架构上用编译器运行以下代码，看看它输出了什么。下面是我的Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) 64位g++4.7.3输出。还请注意下面的回答，这就是为什么输出是这样排序的:

有五种标准的有符号整型:有符号char、short int、int、long int和long long int。在此列表中，每种类型提供的存储空间至少与列表中前面的类型相同。”

#include <iostream>

int main ( int argc, char * argv[] )
{
  std::cout<< "size of char: " << sizeof (char) << std::endl;
  std::cout<< "size of short: " << sizeof (short) << std::endl;
  std::cout<< "size of int: " << sizeof (int) << std::endl;
  std::cout<< "size of long: " << sizeof (long) << std::endl;
  std::cout<< "size of long long: " << sizeof (long long) << std::endl;

  std::cout<< "size of float: " << sizeof (float) << std::endl;
  std::cout<< "size of double: " << sizeof (double) << std::endl;

  std::cout<< "size of pointer: " << sizeof (int *) << std::endl;
}


size of char: 1
size of short: 2
size of int: 4
size of long: 8
size of long long: 8
size of float: 4
size of double: 8
size of pointer: 8

我注意到这里所有的其他答案几乎都集中在整型上，而提问者也问了浮点数。

我不认为c++标准需要它，但是现在大多数常见平台的编译器通常都遵循IEEE754标准的浮点数。该标准指定了四种类型的二进制浮点数(以及一些BCD格式，我从未见过c++编译器支持这些格式):

半精度(binary16) - 11位有效值，指数范围-14到15 单精度(binary32) - 24位有效值，指数范围-126至127 双精度(binary64) - 53位有效值，指数范围-1022到1023 四倍精度(binary128) - 113位有效值，指数范围-16382到16383

那么，这是如何映射到c++类型的呢?一般浮子采用单精度;因此，sizeof(float) = 4。然后double使用双精度(我相信这是double名称的来源)，长double可能是双精度或四倍精度(在我的系统上是四倍精度，但在32位系统上可能是双精度)。我不知道有哪个编译器能提供半精度浮点数。

总结一下，通常是这样的:

Sizeof (float) = 4 Sizeof (double) = 8 Sizeof (long double) = 8或16

有标准。

C90标准要求

sizeof(short) <= sizeof(int) <= sizeof(long)

C99标准要求

sizeof(short) <= sizeof(int) <= sizeof(long) <= sizeof(long long)

这是C99的规格。第22页详细介绍了不同整型的大小。

下面是Windows平台的int类型大小(位):

Type           C99 Minimum     Windows 32bit
char           8               8
short          16              16
int            16              32
long           32              32
long long      64              64

如果你关心可移植性，或者你想要类型的名称反映大小，你可以查看头文件<inttypes.h>，其中有以下宏:

int8_t
int16_t
int32_t
int64_t

Int8_t保证为8位，int16_t保证为16位，以此类推。

如果您对纯c++解决方案感兴趣，我使用模板和仅c++标准代码在编译时根据位大小定义类型。 这使得解决方案可以跨编译器移植。

背后的想法很简单:创建一个包含类型char, int, short, long, long long(有符号和无符号版本)的列表，然后扫描列表，并使用numeric_limits模板选择具有给定大小的类型。

包括这个头，你得到8类型stdtype::int8, stdtype::int16, stdtype::int32, stdtype::int64, stdtype::uint8, stdtype::uint16, stdtype::uint32, stdtype::uint64。

如果某些类型不能被表示，它将被计算为stdtype::null_type，也在该头文件中声明。

以下代码没有保修，请仔细检查。 我也是元编程的新手，请随意编辑和更正此代码。 使用devc++进行测试(因此gcc版本在3.5左右)

#include <limits>

namespace stdtype
{
    using namespace std;


    /*
     * THIS IS THE CLASS USED TO SEMANTICALLY SPECIFY A NULL TYPE.
     * YOU CAN USE WHATEVER YOU WANT AND EVEN DRIVE A COMPILE ERROR IF IT IS 
     * DECLARED/USED.
     *
     * PLEASE NOTE that C++ std define sizeof of an empty class to be 1.
     */
    class null_type{};

    /*
     *  Template for creating lists of types
     *
     *  T is type to hold
     *  S is the next type_list<T,S> type
     *
     *  Example:
     *   Creating a list with type int and char: 
     *      typedef type_list<int, type_list<char> > test;
     *      test::value         //int
     *      test::next::value   //char
     */
    template <typename T, typename S> struct type_list
    {
        typedef T value;
        typedef S next;         

    };




    /*
     * Declaration of template struct for selecting a type from the list
     */
    template <typename list, int b, int ctl> struct select_type;


    /*
     * Find a type with specified "b" bit in list "list"
     *
     * 
     */
    template <typename list, int b> struct find_type
    {   
        private:
            //Handy name for the type at the head of the list
            typedef typename list::value cur_type;

            //Number of bits of the type at the head
            //CHANGE THIS (compile time) exp TO USE ANOTHER TYPE LEN COMPUTING
            enum {cur_type_bits = numeric_limits<cur_type>::digits};

        public:
            //Select the type at the head if b == cur_type_bits else
            //select_type call find_type with list::next
            typedef  typename select_type<list, b, cur_type_bits>::type type;
    };

    /*
     * This is the specialization for empty list, return the null_type
     * OVVERRIDE this struct to ADD CUSTOM BEHAVIOR for the TYPE NOT FOUND case
     * (ie search for type with 17 bits on common archs)
     */
    template <int b> struct find_type<null_type, b>
    {   
        typedef null_type type;

    };


    /*
     * Primary template for selecting the type at the head of the list if
     * it matches the requested bits (b == ctl)
     *
     * If b == ctl the partial specified templated is evaluated so here we have
     * b != ctl. We call find_type on the next element of the list
     */
    template <typename list, int b, int ctl> struct select_type
    {   
            typedef  typename find_type<typename list::next, b>::type type; 
    };

    /*
     * This partial specified templated is used to select top type of a list
     * it is called by find_type with the list of value (consumed at each call)
     * the bits requested (b) and the current type (top type) length in bits
     *
     * We specialice the b == ctl case
     */
    template <typename list, int b> struct select_type<list, b, b>
    {
            typedef typename list::value type;
    };


    /*
     * These are the types list, to avoid possible ambiguity (some weird archs)
     * we kept signed and unsigned separated
     */

    #define UNSIGNED_TYPES type_list<unsigned char,         \
        type_list<unsigned short,                           \
        type_list<unsigned int,                             \
        type_list<unsigned long,                            \
        type_list<unsigned long long, null_type> > > > >

    #define SIGNED_TYPES type_list<signed char,         \
        type_list<signed short,                         \
        type_list<signed int,                           \
        type_list<signed long,                          \
        type_list<signed long long, null_type> > > > >



    /*
     * These are acutally typedef used in programs.
     * 
     * Nomenclature is [u]intN where u if present means unsigned, N is the 
     * number of bits in the integer
     *
     * find_type is used simply by giving first a type_list then the number of 
     * bits to search for.
     *
     * NB. Each type in the type list must had specified the template 
     * numeric_limits as it is used to compute the type len in (binary) digit.
     */
    typedef find_type<UNSIGNED_TYPES, 8>::type  uint8;
    typedef find_type<UNSIGNED_TYPES, 16>::type uint16;
    typedef find_type<UNSIGNED_TYPES, 32>::type uint32;
    typedef find_type<UNSIGNED_TYPES, 64>::type uint64;

    typedef find_type<SIGNED_TYPES, 7>::type    int8;
    typedef find_type<SIGNED_TYPES, 15>::type   int16;
    typedef find_type<SIGNED_TYPES, 31>::type   int32;
    typedef find_type<SIGNED_TYPES, 63>::type   int64;

}

c++标准是这样说的:

3.9.1,§2:

There are five signed integer types : "signed char", "short int", "int", "long int", and "long long int". In this list, each type provides at least as much storage as those preceding it in the list. Plain ints have the natural size suggested by the architecture of the execution environment (44); the other signed integer types are provided to meet special needs. (44) that is, large enough to contain any value in the range of INT_MIN and INT_MAX, as defined in the header <climits>.

结论:这取决于您使用的是哪种体系结构。其他任何假设都是错误的。