Structure padding is a technique used in programming to align data structures in memory. It involves adding extra space between data members to ensure that they are aligned on specific boundaries, such as 4-byte or 8-byte boundaries. While structure padding can improve performance in some cases, it can also waste memory and reduce cache efficiency.
There are several ways to avoid structure padding. One common approach is to use packed structures. Packed structures do not add any extra padding between data members, which can save memory and improve cache efficiency. Another approach is to use compiler flags that optimize for size rather than performance. These flags can instruct the compiler to minimize the amount of padding added to data structures.
