Is it faster to access the byte than a bit? What for?

Question

The question is very direct: is it faster to access the byte? If I store 8 booleans in a byte, will it be slower if I have to compare them than if I used 8 bytes? Why?

Answer 1

Probably not. The smallest addressable memory unit on most machines today is bytes. In most cases, you cannot access a bit or access it.

In fact, accessing a specific bit can be even more expensive because you need to create a mask and use some logic.

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Answer 3

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Answer 6

Computers tend to refer to things in words. Access to bits is slower because more effort is required:

Imagine that I said something to you, and then said: "Oh, replace your second word instead." Now imagine that my editing was "oh, change the third letter in the second word."

Which requires more thought on your part?