Data Representation in Solidity

For writers of line debuggers and other debugging-related utilities.

Solidity storage allocation example layout

Author Harry Altman [@haltman-at]
Published 2018-12-26 - Boxing Day
Last revised 2021-10-01
Copyright 2018-2021 ConsenSys Software Inc
License Creative Commons License
Document Source ethdebug/solidity-data-representation

Purpose of this document

The point of this document is to explain representation of data in Solidity for the purposes of locating and decoding it; more specifically, for writing a line debugger that does such. As such, other information about the type system or data layout that aren’t necessary for that may be skipped; and where location is not entirely predictable but may be determined by other systems of the debugger, we may rely on that. See the Solidity documentation for things not covered here, particularly the section on types and the ABI specification; and perhaps also see the Ethereum yellow paper.

This document is also primarily only concerned with variables that a user might define, not special language-defined variables which will typically not be stored in any of these locations, and so for the most part we will not discuss these, although we will make an exception for the special variables msg.data and msg.sig.

Finally this document is only concerned with variables as they exist in the Solidity language, and not in the underlying implementation; thus we will say things like “calldata cannot directly contain value types”, simply because Solidity will not allow one to declare a calldata variable of value type (the original value in calldata will always be copied onto the stack before use). Obviously the value still exists in calldata, but since no variable points there, it’s not our concern.

Note: This document pertains to Solidity v0.8.9, current as of this writing.

Contents

Locations: Basics

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The EVM has a number of locations where data can be stored. We will be concerned with five of them: The stack, storage, memory, calldata, and code. (We will ignore returndata. There are also some other “special locations” that I will mention briefly in the calldata section but will mostly ignore.)

The stack and storage are made of words (“slots”), while memory, calldata, and code are made of bytes; however, we will basically ignore this distinction. We will, for the stack and storage, conventionally consider the large end of each word to be the earlier (left) end; and, for the other locations, conventionally consider the location as divided up into words (“slots”) of 32 bytes, with the earlier end of each word being the large end. Or, in other words, everything is big-endian (or construed as big-endian) unless stated otherwise. With this convention, we can ignore the distinction between the slot-based locations and the byte-based locations. (My apologies in advance for the abuse of terminology that results from this, but I think using this convention here saves more trouble than it causes.)

(For calldata, we will actually use a slightly different convention, as detailed later, but you can ignore that for now. We will also occasionally use a different convention in memory, as also detailed later, but you can again ignore that for now. Also, we will ignore the notion of “slots” in the case of code.)

Memory (with one exception to be described later) and calldata will always be accessed through pointers to such; as such, we will only discuss concrete data layout for storage, the stack, and code, as those are the only locations we’ll access without a pointer (but for the stack we’ll mostly rely on the debugger having other ways of determining location, and for code we’ll rely on other compiler output).

Types Overview

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Terminology

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There are a number of ways of dividing up the types into classes. The system I’ll use here is my own, based on what I think is useful here.

A variable of direct type can, for our purposes, be considered as a value by itself.

A variable of multivalue type holds a fixed number of other element variables, stored consecutively.

A variable of lookup type holds a number of other element variables not fixed in advance.

A variable of pointer type holds a reference to another multivalue or lookup variable to be found elsewhere. They never point to variables of direct type or other variables of pointer type. (Note that pointers are not, in Solidity, an actual type separate from that of what they point to, but they’re useful to consider as a separate type here.)

This will be our fourfold division of types. Some other type terminology, as defined by the language, is useful:

The term reference types refers collectively to multivalue and lookup types.

A static type is either

  1. A direct type, or
  2. A multivalue type, all of whose element variables are also of static type.

(Remark: In pre-0.5.0 versions of Solidity, when static-length of arrays of length 0 were allowed, these were automatically static regardless of the base type, since, after all, there are no element variables.)

A dynamic type is any type that is not static. (Pointers don’t fit into this dichotomy, not being an actual Solidity type.)

We’ll also use the term key types to denote types that can be used as mapping keys. See the section on lookup types for more on these.

Finally, to avoid confusion with other meanings of the word “value”, I’m going to speak of “keys and elements” rather than “keys and values”; I’m going to consistently speak of “elements” rather than “values” or “children” or “members”.

Types and locations

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What types can go in what locations?

The stack can hold only direct types and pointer types.

Directly pointed-to variables living in memory or calldata can only be of reference type, although their elements, also living in memory or calldata, can of course also be of direct or pointer type.

Some types are not allowed in calldata, especially if ABIEncoderV2 is not being used; but we will assume it is. Note, though, that circular types are never allowed in calldata.

Only direct types may go in code as immutables; moreover, variables of type function external cannot presently go in code this way. (Nor can they go in memory as immutables, when memory is being used to store immutables.)

In addition, the locations memory and calldata may not hold mappings, which may go only in storage. (However, structs that contain mappings, or that contain (possibly multidimensional) arrays of mappings, were allowed in memory prior to Solidity 0.7.0, though such mappings or arrrays would be omitted from the struct; see the section on memory for more detail.)

Storage does not hold pointer types as there is never any reason for it to do so.

While this is not a type-level concern, it is likely worth noting here that memory (and no other location) can contain circular structs. Storage can also contain structs of circular type, but not actual circular structs.

Note that reference types, in Solidity, include the location as part of the type (with the exception of mappings as it would be unnecessary there); however we will ignore this from here on out, since if we are talking about a particular location then obviously we are talking only about types that go in that location.

The rest of this section will give a brief overview of the various types. However, one should see the appropriate location sections for more information. Still, here is a summary table one may use (this also covers some things not mentioned above):

Table of types and locations

Location Direct types Multivalue types Lookup types Mappings and arrays of such in structs are… Pointer types
Stack Yes No (only as pointers) No (only as pointers) N/A To storage, memory, or calldata
Storage Yes Yes Yes Legal No
Memory Only as elements of other types or as immutables Yes Yes, excluding mappings Illegal (omitted prior to 0.7.0) To memory (only as elements of other types)
Calldata Only as elements of other types, with restrictions Yes, excluding circular struct types Yes, excluding mappings Illegal To calldata (only as elements of other types)
Code Yes, with restrictions No No N/A No

Note that with the exception of the special case of mappings (or possibly multidimensional arrays of such) in structs, it is otherwise true that if the type of some element of some given type is illegal in that location, then so is the type as a whole. Also, immutables in memory have the same restrictions that they do in code.

Overview of the types: Direct types

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Basics of direct types: Packing and padding

With regard to direct types, storage is a packed location – multiple variables of direct type may share a storage slot, within which each variable only takes up as much space as it need to; see the table below for information on sizes. (Note that variables of direct type may not cross word boundaries.)

The stack, memory, calldata, and code, however, are padded locations – each variable of direct type always takes up a full slot. (There are two exceptions to this – the individual bytes in a bytes or string are packed rather than padded; and external functions take up two slots on the stack. Both these will be described in more detail later (1, 2).) The exact method of padding varies by type, as detailed in the table below. Note that immutables have slightly unusual padding, whether stored in code or memory, as will be detailed later (1, 2).

(Again, note that for calldata we are using a somewhat unusual notion of slot; see the calldata section for more information.)

Table of direct types

Here is a table of all the (general classes of) direct types and their key properties. Some of this information may not yet make sense if you have only read up to this point. See the next section for more detail on how these types are actually represented.

Type Size in storage (bytes) Padding in padded locations Default value Is key type? Allowed in calldata? Allowed as immutable? Can back a UDVT?
bool 1 Zero padded, left false Yes Yes Yes Yes
uintN N/8 Zero-padded, left* 0 Yes Yes Yes Yes
intN N/8 Sign-padded, left* 0 Yes Yes Yes Yes
address [payable] 20 Zero-padded, left* Zero address (not valid!) Yes Yes Yes Yes
contract types 20 Zero-padded, left* Zero address (not valid!) Yes Yes Yes Yes
bytesN N Zero-padded, right* All zeroes Yes Yes Yes No
enum types As many as needed to hold all possibilities Zero-padded, left Whichever possibility is represented by 0 Yes Yes Yes Yes
function internal 8 Zero-padded, left Depends on location, but always invalid No No Yes No
function external 24 Zero-padded, right, except on stack Zero address, zero selector (not valid!) No Yes No No
ufixedMxN M/8 Zero-padded, left* 0 Yes Yes Yes Yes
fixedMxN M/8 Sign-padded, left* 0 Yes Yes Yes Yes
User-defined value types Same as underlying type (except in 0.8.8) Same as underlying type* Same as underlying type Yes Yes Yes No

Some remarks:

  1. As the table states, external functions act a bit oddly on the stack; see the section on the stack for details.
  2. In Solidity 0.8.8, there is a bug that caused user-defined value types to always take up one full word in storage, regardless of the size of the underlying type; they would be padded as if they were being stored in a padded location.
  3. Prior to Solidity 0.8.9, padding worked a bit differently in code; in code, all types were zero-padded, even if they would ordinarily be sign-padded. This did not affect which side they are padded on.
  4. Prior to Solidity 0.8.9, padding also worked a bit differently for immutables stored in memory during contract construction. In this context, all types used to be zero-padded on the right, regardless of their usual padding.
  5. Some types are marked with an asterisk regarding their padding. These types may have incorrect padding while on the stack due to operations that overflow. Solidity will always restore the correct padding when it is necessary to do so; however, it will not do this until it is necessary to do so. So, be aware that on the stack these types may be padded incorrectly.
  6. The ufixedMxN and fixedMxN types are not implemented yet. Their listed properies are largely inferred based on what we can expect.
  7. Some direct types have aliases; these have not been listed in the above table. uint and int are aliases for uint256 and int256; ufixed and fixed for ufixed128x18 and fixed128x18; and byte for bytes1.
  8. Each direct type’s default value is simply whatever value is represented by a string of all zero bytes, with the one exception of internal functions in locations other than storage. See below for more on this.
  9. The N in uintN and intN must be a multiple of 8, from 8 to 256. The M in ufixedMxN and fixedMxN must be a multiple of 8, from 8 to 256, while N must be from 0 to 80. The N in bytesN must be from 1 to 32.
  10. Function types are, of course, more complex than just their division into internal and external; they also have input parameter types, output parameter types, and mutability modifiers (pure, view, payable). However, these will not concern us here, and we will ignore them.

Representations of direct types

uintN is an N-bit binary number (big-endian). The signed variant intN uses 2’s-complement.

bytesN is simply a string of N bytes.

Booleans are represented by 0 for false and 1 for true; they act like uint8, just restricted to 0 and 1.

Addresses just act like uint160. Contracts are represented by their underying addresses.

Enums are represented by integers; the possibility listed first by 0, the next by 1, and so forth. An enum type just acts like uintN, where N is the smallest legal value large enough to accomodate all the possibilities.

Internal functions may be represented in one of two ways. The bottom 4 bytes represented by the code address (in bytes from the beginning of code) of the beginning of said function (specifically, the JUMPDEST instruction that begins it). If the value was set outside a constructor, the 4 bytes above that will be 0. However, inside a constructor, the 4 bytes above that will instead be the code address of the function inside the constructor code rather than the deployed code.

For internal functions, default values are also worth discussing, as in non-storage locations, they have a nonzero default value. In contracts for which Solidity deems it necessary, there will be a special designated invalid function. In Solidity 0.8.0 and later, this function throws a Panic(0x51); in earlier versions of Solidity, it uses the INVALID opcode, reverting the transaction and consuming all available gas. In versions of Solidity prior to 0.8.0, it has the bytecode 0x5bfe; in Solidity 0.8.0 to 0.8.4, it has the bytecode

0x5b7f000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000004e487b71600052605160045260246000fd

and in Solidity 0.8.5 and later, it is a function that just jumps directly to a function with the latter bytecode (this jumped-to function may also be identified by the fact that it is a generated Yul function with name panic_error_0x51). As mentioned, in all cases, such a function is only included if Solidity deems it necessary. The default value for an internal function, then, outside of storage, is to point to this designated invalid function. In all other respects, these default values are encoded as above.

Remark: Prior to Solidity 0.5.8 (or Solidity 0.4.26, in the 0.4.x line) there was a bug causing the default value for internal functions to be incorrectly encoded when it was set in a constructor. It would have 0 for the upper 4 bytes, and would have as the lower 4 bytes what the upper 4 bytes should have been.

External functions are represented by a 20-byte address and a 4-byte selector; in locations other than the stack, this consists of first the 20-byte address and then the 4-byte selector. On the stack, however, it is more complicated. See the section on the stack for details.

ufixedMxN and fixedMxN are interpreted as follows: If interpreting as a (M-bit, big-endian) binary number (unsigned or signed as appropriate) would yield k, the result is interpreted as the rational number k/10**N.

User-defined value types are always backed by another type (see the table for which types are allowed in this context). Their representation is the same as that of the underlying type.

Presently unstoreable functions

Some legal values of function type presently have no representation and so cannot be stored in a variable. These are:

  1. External functions with a specified amount of gas or value attached (even if that amount is zero).
  2. External functions of libraries – including library functions declared public when not in that library – because there is presently no way to represent that they should be called with DELEGATECALL, and because they may accept non-ABI types and thus have no signature according to the ABI specification. This similarly includes functions created by using ... for ... directives.
  3. Special functions defined by the language. This means globally available functions; functions which are members of arrays; functions which are members of addresses; and functions which are members of external functions.

So, the question of how these are presently represented when stored, is that they are not. (There are other presently unstoreable functions, too, but since their unstorability is due to other issues, we will not discuss them here.)

Overview of the types: Multivalue types

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The multivalue types are type[n] (here n must be positive), which has n elements of type type; and the various user-defined struct types, whose multiple element variables (of which there must be at least one) are as specified in the appropriate struct definition, and occur in the order specified there.

Remark: Prior to Solidity 0.5.0, it was legal to have type[0] or empty structs.

Note that it is legal to include a mapping type, or a (possibly multidimensional) array of mappings, as an element of a struct type; prior to Solidity 0.7.0, this did not preclude the struct type from being used in memory (even though, as per the following section, mappings cannot appear in memory), but rather, the mapping (or array) would be simply omitted in memory. See the memory section for more details. Such a struct has always been barred from appearing in calldata, however.

Also note that circular struct types are allowed, so long as the circularity is mediated by a lookup type. That is to say, if a struct type T0 has a element type T1 which has a element type … which has a element type Tn with Tn equal to T0, this is legal only if at least one of the types Ti is a lookup type. However, such types are allowed only in storage and memory, not calldata.

The default value for a multivalue type consists of assigning the default value to each of its element variables.

(There’s no table for this section as there would be little point.)

Overview of the types: Lookup types

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The lookup types are type[]; mapping(keyType => elementType); bytes; and string.

Dynamic arrays, type[], have an indefinite number of elements of type type. Mappings, mapping(keyType => elementType, have an indefinite number of elements of type elementType. Bytestrings, bytes, have an indefinite number of elements of type byte.

The type string is something of a special case; strings are UTF-8 encoded to form a string of bytes, and then that string of bytes is stored exactly as if it were a bytes. For this reason, we will basically ignore the type string from here on out; it basically acts exactly like bytes, except that one cannot meaningfully speak of its elements.

As mentioned above, mappings can go only in storage (but see previous section about mappings in structs). Only certain types are allowed as key types for mappings; these can roughly be described as the “value types” together with string and bytes, but one should see the appropriate tables to see which direct or lookup types are key types. Observe that key types may all be meaningfully converted to a string of bytes.

The default value for a lookup type is for it to be empty. For the particular case of a type[] in memory, the default value once it has been initialized to a particular size is for all its elements to have their default value.

The information above is also summarized in the following table.

Table of lookup types

Type Element type Restricted to storage? Is key type?
type[] type No No
mapping(keyType => elementType) elementType Yes No
bytes byte (bytes1) No Yes
string N/A, but underlying bytes has byte elements No Yes

Note that mappings have other special features – e.g., they cannot be copied or deleted – but we will not go into that here.

Overview of the types: Pointer types

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Pointers usually take up a single word, although some take up two words. See the appropriate location section for information on pointers to that location (1, 2, 3), but you may find a summarizing table below.

Again, remember that pointers are not, in Solidity, an actual type separate from that of what they point to, but we’re considering them here separately all the same.

Pointers always either point from the stack to somewhere else, or from one location to somewhere else in that same location. Pointers never go between different non-stack locations.

The default value for a memory pointer to a variable of lookup type is 0x60, the null pointer; see the section on memory pointers for more information. Attempting to delete a memory pointer to a variable of multivalue type instead allocates a new instance of that type, of its default value, and sets the pointer to point at this, so memory pointers to variables of multivalue type have no fixed default value.

The default value for a storage pointer is a pointer to the 0 slot – beware, making use of such a pointer can lead to nonsense! Don’t do this! (Note that while it is legal to leave a storage pointer uninitialized, it is not legal to delete one.)

Calldata pointers don’t have a default value; they’re never uninitialized and it’s illegal to delete them.

Table of pointer types

Type Absolute or relative? Measured in… Has second word for length? Default value
Pointer to storage Absolute Words No 0 (may be garbage, don’t use!)
Pointer to memory Absolute Bytes No 0x60 for lookup types; no fixed default for multivalue types
Pointer to calldata from calldata Relative (in an unusual way) Bytes No N/A
Pointer to calldata multivalue type from the stack Absolute Bytes No Equal to the length of calldata
Pointer to calldata lookup type from the stack Absolute (with an offset) Bytes Yes Equal to the length of calldata; length word equal to zero

Locations in Detail

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The stack in detail

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The stack, as mentioned above, can hold only direct types and pointer types. It’s also the one location other than storage that we will access directly rather than through storage, so we’ll take some time to discuss data layout on the stack.

The stack: Direct types and pointer types

The stack is, as mentioned above, is a padded location, so all direct types are padded to a full word in the manner described in the direct types table.

There are two special cases that must be noted here, that each take up two words instead of one. The first special case is that of external functions. An external function is represented by a 20-byte address and a 4-byte selector; these are stored in two separate words, with the address in the bottom word and the selector in the top word. Both these are zero-padded on the left, not the right like in the other padded locations.

The second two-word special case is that of pointers to calldata lookup types; see the section on pointers to calldata from the stack for details.

The stack: Data layout

Stack variables are local variables, so naturally things will change as the contract executes. But, we can still describe how things are at any given time. Note that if you are actually writing a debugger, you may want to rely on other systems to determine data layout on the stack.

The stack is of course not used only for storing local variables, but also as a working space. And of course it also holds return addresses. The stack is divided into stackframes; each stackframe begins with the return address. (There is no frame pointer, for those used to such a thing; just a return address.) The exceptions are constructors and fallback/receive functions, which do not include a return address. In addition, if the initial function call (i.e. stackframe) of the EVM stackframe (i.e. message call or creation call) is not a constructor, and the contract has external functions other than the constructor, fallback, and receive functions, then the function selector will be stored on the stack below the first stackframe. (Additionally, in Solidity 0.4.20 and later, an extra zero word will appear below that on the stack if you’re within a library call, unless the function called is pure or view and does not include any storage pointers in its input or output parameters.)

Note that function modifiers and base constructor invocations (whether placed on the constructor or on the contract) do not create new stackframes; these are part of the same stackframe as the function that invoked them.

Within each stackframe, all variables are always stored below the workspace. So while the workspace may be unpredictable, we can ignore it for the purposes of data layout within a given stackframe. (Of course, the workspace in one stackframe does come between that stackframe’s variables and the start of the next stackframe.)

Restricting our attention to the variables, then, the stack acts, as expected, as a stack; variables are pushed onto it when needed, and are popped off of it when no longer needed. These pushes and pops are arranged in a way that is compatible with the stack structure; i.e., they are in fact pushes and pops.

The parameters of the function being called, including output parameters, are pushed onto the stack when the function is called and the stackframe is entered, and are not popped until the function, including all modifiers, exits. It’s necessary here to specify the order they go onto the stack. First come the input parameters, in the order they were given, followed by the output parameters, in the order they were given. Anonymous output parameters are treated the same as named output parameters for these purposes. Similarly, parameters for fallback functions are not treated specially here, but work like any other parameters.

Remark: Yul functions work slightly differently here, in that output parameters are pushed onto the stack in the reverse of the order they were given.

Ordinary local variables, as declared in a function or modifier, are pushed onto the stack at their declaration and are popped when their containing block exits (for variables declared in the initializer of a for loop, the containing block is considered to be the for loop). If multiple variables are declared within a single statement, they go on the stack in the order they were declared within that statement.

Parameters to a modifier are pushed onto the stack when that modifier begins and are popped when that modifier exits. Again, they go in the stack in the order they were given. Note that (like other local variables declared in modifiers) these variables are still on the stack while the placeholder statement _; is running, even if they are inaccessible. Remember that modifiers are run in order from left to right, and that they may be applied to constructors, fallback functions, and receive functions.

This leaves the case of parameters to base constructor invocations (whether on the constructor or on the contract). When a constructor is called, not only are its parameters pushed onto the stack, but so are all the parameters to all of its base constructors – not just the direct parents, but for all ancestors. They go on in order from most derived to most base, as determined by the usual C3 order (discussed more in the section on storage layout below). Note that if the base constructors are listed on the constructor declaration, the order has no effect; only the order that the base classes are listed on the class declaration matters here. Within each base constructor’s parameter region, the parameters are pushed on in order from left to right. Constructors then execute in order from most base to most derived (again, note that the order they’re listed on the constructor declaration has no effect); when a constructor exits, its parameters are popped from the stack. Modifiers on a constructor or base constructor are handled when that constructor or base constructor runs.

Paramters to a modifier on a fallback or receive function work like parameters to a modifier on any other function. Note that parameters to a modifier on a constructor only go onto the stack when that particular constructor is about to run (i.e., all base constructors that run before it have exited).

Code in detail

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Once a contract has been deployed, its immutable state variables are stored in its code.

Code: direct types

Only direct types may go in code as immutables. In addition, function external variables are currently barred from being used as immutables.

Note that while code is a padded location, prior to Solidity 0.8.9, its padding worked a bit unusually. In code, all types would be zero-padded, even if ordinarily they would be sign-padded. Note that this did not alter whether they are padded on the right or on the left. Since Solidity 0.8.9, however, types in code are just padded normally.

Code: data layout

Where in the code immutables may be found is basically unpredictable in advance. However, you may use the Solidity compiler’s immutableReferences output to determine this information. Note that immutables that are never actually read from will not appear here – as they won’t actually appear anywhere in the code, either! Immutables are simply inlined into the code wherever they’re read from, so if they’re never read from, their value isn’t actually stored anywhere.

Note that code has no notion of “slots”; the variables are simply placed wherever the compiler places them, among the code.

Memory in detail

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Memory is used in two different ways. Its ordinary use is to hold variables declared as living in memory. Its secondary use, however, is to hold immutables during contract construction.

We won’t discuss layout in memory in the first context, since, as mentioned, we only access it via pointers. However, we will discuss layout in memory for the case of immutables in memory.

Remark: Although memory objects ordinarily start on a word, there is a bug in versions 0.5.3, 0.5.5, and 0.5.6 of Solidity specifically that can occasionally cause them to start in the middle of a word. In this case, for the purposes of decoding that object, you should consider slots to begin at the beginning of that object. (Of course, once you follow a pointer, you’ll have to have your slots based on that pointer. Again, since we only access memory through pointers, this is mostly not a concern, and it only happens at all in those specific versions of Solidity.)

Memory: Direct types and pointer types

Memory is a padded location, so direct types are padded as described in their table. Pointers, as mentioned above, always take up a full word.

Note that prior to Solidity 0.8.9, immutables stored in memory had unusual padding; they were always zero-padded on the right, regardless of their usual padding. Again, note that this only applied to immutables stored directly in memory during contract construct, and not to direct types appearing as elements of another type in memory in memory’s normal use. Since Solidity 0.8.9, all direct types stored in memory, including immutables, have had normal padding.

Layout of immutables in memory

Immutable state variables are stored in memory during contract construction. (Or at least, for most of it; towards the end of contract construction memory will be overwritten by the code of the contract being constructed.)

Immutable state variables are stored one after the other starting at memory address 0x80 (skipping the first four words of memory as Solidity reserves these for internal purposes). Memory being a padded location, each takes up one word (although note that as per the previous subsection, the padding on immutables was unusual prior to Solidity 0.8.9). This just leaves the question of the order that they are stored in.

For the simple case of a contract without inheritance, the immutable state variables are stored in the order that they are declared. In the case of inheritance, the variables of the base class go before those of the derived class. In cases of multiple inheritance, Solidity uses the C3 linearization to order classes from “most base” to “most derived”, and then, as mentioned above, lays out variables starting with the most base and ending with the most derived. (Remember that, when listing parent classes, Solidity considers parents listed first to be “more base”; as the Solidity docs note, this is the reverse order from, say, Python.)

Memory: Multivalue types

A multivalue type in memory is simply represented by concatenating together the representation of its elements; with the exceptions that elements of reference type (both multivalue and lookup types), other than mappings, are represented as pointers. (Also, prior to Solidity 0.7.0, elements of mapping type, as well as (possibly multidimensional) arrays of such, were allowed in memory structs and were simply omitted, as mappings cannot appear in memory.) As such, each element (that isn’t omitted) takes up exactly one word (because direct types are padded and all reference types are stored as pointers). Elements of structs go in the order they’re specified in.

(Note that prior to Solidity 0.7.0 it was possible to have in memory a struct that contains only mappings, and prior to 0.5.0, it was possible to have a struct that was empty entirely, or a statically-sized array of length 0. Such a struct or array doesn’t really have a representation in memory, since in memory it has zero length. Of course, since we only access memory through pointers, if we are given a pointer to such a struct or array, we need not decode anything, as all of the struct’s elements have been omitted. The actual location pointed to may contain junk and should be ignored.)

Note that it is possible to have circular structs – not just circular struct types, but actual circular structs – in memory. This is not possible in any other location.

Memory: Lookup types

There are two lookup types that can go in memory: type[] and bytes (there is also string, but we will not treat that separately from bytes).

A dynamic array of type type[] is represented by a slot containing the length of the array (call it n), followed immediately by the array itself, represented just as if it were an array of type type[n]; see the section above.

A bytes is represented by a slot containing the length of the bytestring, followed by a sequence of slots containing the bytestring; the bytes in the string are not individually padded, but rather are simply stored in sequence. Since the last slot may not contain a full 32 bytes, it is zero-padded on the right.

Remark: In a few specific versions of Solidity, there is a bug that can cause particular bytes and strings to lack the padding on the end, resulting in the alignment bug mentioned above.

Pointers to memory

Pointers to memory are absolute and given in bytes. Since memory is padded, all pointers will point to the start of a word and thus be a multiple of 0x20. (With the exception, mentioned above, of some pointers in some specific versions of Solidity.)

The pointer 0x60 is something of a null pointer; it points to a reserved slot which is always zero. By the previous section, this slot can therefore represent any empty variable of lookup type in memory, and in fact it’s used as a default value for memory pointers of lookup type.

Calldata in detail

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Calldata is largely the same as memory; so rather than describing calldata from scratch, we will simply describe how it differs from memory.

Importantly, we will use a different convention when talking about “slots” in calldata; see the following subsection. (Although it’s not that important, since, like with memory, we only access calldata through pointers. You just don’t want to find yourself surprised by it.)

Slots in calldata and the offset

The first four bytes of calldata are the function selector, and are not followed by any padding. As such, in calldata, we consider words and slots to begin not on the usual word boundaries (multiples of 0x20) but rather to begin offset by 4-bytes; “slots” in calldata will begin at bytes whose address is congruent to 0x4 modulo 0x20. (Since calldata is byte-based rather than word-based, this offset is not disastrous like it would be in, say, storage.)

Because we will only access calldata through pointers, this offset is not that relevant, but it is worth noting.

Also note that in constructors, there is no 4-byte offset, but that’s because in constructors, calldata is empty (the special variable msg.sig is padded to contain 4 zero bytes). Parameters passed to constructors actually go in code rather than calldata – and are represented the same way but with a different offset – but since we will only deal with them once they have been copied onto the stack or into memory, we will ignore this.

Calldata: Direct types and pointer types

Direct types are the same as in memory. Nothing more needs to be said. Pointers to calldata are a bit different from pointers to memory, but you can see below about that.

Calldata: Multivalue and lookup types (reference types)

In order to understand reference types in calldata, we need the distinction of static and dynamic types that was introduced earlier.

With that in hand, then, variables of reference type in calldata are stored similarly to in memory (1, 2), with the difference that any of their elements of static reference type are not stored as pointers, but are simply stored inline; so unlike in memory, elements may take up multiple words. Elements of dynamic type are still stored as pointers (but see the section below about how those work).

Also, structs that contain mappings (or arrays of such) are entirely illegal in calldata, unlike in memory where the mappings are simply omitted.

Remark: Calldata variables were only introduced in Solidity 0.5.0, so it is impossible to have variables of zero-element multivalue type in calldata; however, it still may be worth noting for other purposes that in the underlying encoding, such variables are omitted entirely in calldata (unlike in storage where they still take up a single word, or memory where it varies).

The special variable msg.data

While I’ve thus far avoided discussing special variables, it’s worth pausing here to discuss the special variable msg.data, the one special variable of reference type. It is a bytes calldata. But it’s not represented like other variables of type bytes calldata, is it? It’s not some location in calldata with the number of bytes followed by the string of bytes; it simply is all of calldata. Accesses to it are simply accesses to the string of bytes that is calldata.

This raises the question: Given that calldata is of variable length, where is the length of msg.data stored? The answer, of course, is that this length is what is returned by the CALLDATASIZE instruction. This instruction could be considered something of a special location, and indeed many of the Solidity language’s special globally available variables are “stored” in such special locations, each with their own EVM opcode.

We have thus far ignored these special locations here and how they are encoded. However, since the variables kept in these other special locations are all of type uint256, address, or address payable; these special locations are word-based rather than byte-based (to the extent that distinction is meaningful here); and values from these special locations will always be copied to the (also word-based) stack before use, there is little to say about encoding in these special locations. One could say that addresses are, as always, zero-padded on the left, and that integers are, as always, stored in binary; and these statements would be true in a sense, but also largely meaningless.

Anyway, none of this is really relevant here, so let’s move on from this digression and discuss pointers to calldata.

Pointers to calldata

Pointers to calldata are different depending on whether they are from calldata or from the stack; and pointers to calldata from the stack are different depending on whether they point to a multivalue type or to a lookup type.

Note, by the way, that there is no need for any sort of null pointer in calldata, and so no equivalent exists. (Variables in calldata of lookup type may be empty, of course, but distinct empty calldata variables are kept separate from another, not coalesced into a single null location like in memory.)

Pointers to calldata from calldata

Pointers to calldata from calldata are relative, though in a slightly unusual manner. They are also given in bytes, but are relative not to the current location, but rather to the structure they are a part of (since they never stand alone.)

For pointers to calldata stored in variables of multivalue type, the pointer is relative to the start of that containing variable.

For pointers to calldata stored in variables of lookup type, the pointer is relative to the start of the list of elements, i.e., the word after the length.

Or, to put it differently, either way it is always relative to the start of the list of elements it is contained in.

Note that pointers to calldata from calldata will always be multiples of 0x20, since calldata, like memory, is padded (and these pointers are relative rather than absolute).

Pointers to calldata from the stack

Pointers to a calldata multivalue types from the stack work just like pointers to memory: They are absolute, given in bytes, and always point to the start of a word. In calldata, though, the start of a word is congruent to 0x4 modulo 0x20, rather than being a multiple of 0x20.

Pointers to calldata lookup types from the stack take up two words on the stack rather than just one. The bottom word is a pointer – absolute and given in bytes – but points not to the word containing the length, but rather the start of the content, i.e., the word after the length (as described in the section on lookup types in memory), since lookup types in calldata are similar). The top word contains the length. Note, obviously, that if the length is zero then the value of the pointer is irrelevant (and the word it points to may contain unrelated data).

Storage in detail

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Storage, unlike the other locations mentioned thus far, is a packed, not padded, location. The sizes in bytes of the direct types can be found in the direct types table.

Storage is the one location other than the stack where we sometimes access variables directly rather than through pointers, so we will begin by describing data layout in storage.

Storage: Data layout

Storage is used to hold all state variables that are not declared constant or immutable. In what follows, we ignore constant and immutable variables, and look just at the ordinary state variables. (Variables declared constant are optimized out by the compiler; variables declared immutable are stored in code or memory instead.)

First, we consider the case of a contract that does not inherit from any others.

In this case, state variables in storage are always laid out in the order that they were declared, starting from the beginning of storage. However, within a word, variables are laid out from right to left, not left to right (with one sort-of-exception to be described later). Variables of direct type may not cross a word boundary; if there is not enough room left at the top of a word for what comes next, the unused space at the top of the word remains filled with zeroes, and the next variable starts at the bottom of the next word.

Note that this right-to-left orientation does not mean that the representations of direct types themselves are in any way reversed, only the order they’re laid out in within a word.

Vaiables of lookup type are, for this purpose, regarded as taking up one word; see the subsection on lookup types for more information.

Variables of multivalue type must start on a word boundary, and always occupy whole words (i.e. the next variable after must start on a word boundary).

As mentioned above, variables declared constant or immutable are skipped.

Subject to the above restrictions, every variable is placed as early as possible.

Now, we consider inheritance.

In cases of inheritance, the variables of the base class go before those of the derived class. Note that there is not any sort of barrier between the variables of the base class and those of the derived class; variables of the base class and variables of the derived class may share a slot (so the first variable of the derived class need not start on a slot boundary).

In cases of multiple inheritance, Solidity uses the C3 linearization to order classes from “most base” to “most derived”, and then, as mentioned above, lays out variables starting with the most base and ending with the most derived. (Remember that, when listing parent classes, Solidity considers parents listed first to be “more base”; as the Solidity docs note, this is the reverse order from, say, Python.)

Storage: Direct types

The layout of direct types has already been described above, and the sizes of the direct types are found in the direct types table. Note that there are no pointer types in storage.

Note that in Solidity 0.8.8, there was a bug that caused user-defined value types to always take up a full word in storage, regardless of the size of the underlying type; values of these types would be padded as normal.

Storage: Multivalue types

Variables of multivalue type simply have the elements stored consecutively within storage – they are packed within the multivalue type just as variables are packed within storage. The rules are exactly the same.

The one exceptions is that (in pre-0.5.0 versions of Solidity where this was legal) multivalue types with zero elements still take up a single word, rather than zero words. (So, for instance, a uint[2][0] takes up 1 word, and a bytes1[0][3] takes up 3 words.)

Again, remember that variables of multivalue type must occupy whole words; they start on a word boundary, and whatever comes after starts on a word boundary too. And, obviously, this applies to variables of multivalue type within another variable of multivalue type since, as mentioned, the rules are exactly the same. (But I thought that case was worth highlighting.)

Storage: Lookup types

There are three lookup types that can go in storage: type[], bytes (and string, but again we will not treat that separately), and mapping(keyType => elementType).

As mentioned above, we regard each lookup type as taking up one word; we will call this the “main word”.

For type[], i.e. an array, the main word contains the length of the array. Suppose the main word is in slot p and the length it contains is n. Then the array itself is stored exactly as if it were an array of type type[n] (see section above), except that it starts in the slot keccak256(p).

(Yes, that is the position being used; no explicit pointer to the array location is stored. Other lookup types will be similar in this regard.)

For bytes, if the length (call it n) is less than 32, the low byte of the main word contains n<<1, and the string of bytes itself is stored in the same word, in sequence from left to right; any unused space within the word is left as zero.

If, on the other hand, the length n is at least 32, then the low byte of the main word contains (n<<1)|0x1, and the string of bytes is stored starting in the slot keccak256(p), where p is the position of the main word. This bytestring, too, goes from left to right within words, but (like an array) can take up as many words as necessary. Again, any unused space left within the last word is left as zero.

(Type bytes (and string) is the one sort-of-exception I mentioned to the right-to-left rule within storage.)

Finally, we have mappings. For mappings, the main word itself is unused and left as zero; only its position p is used. Mappings, famously, do not store what keys exist; keys that don’t exist and keys whose corresponding element is 0 (which is always the encoding of the default value (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) for anything in storage) are treated the same.

For a mapping map and a key key, then, the element map[key] is stored starting at keccak256(key . p), where . represents concatenation and key here has been converted to a string of bytes – something that is meaningful for every key type. For the key types which are direct, the padded form is used; the value can be converted to a string of bytes by the representations listed in the section on direct types, with the padding as listed in the direct types table; for the lookup key type bytes (and string), well, this by itself represents a string of bytes! (No padding is applied to these.) Similarly, the position p is regarded as a 32-byte unsigned integer, because that is how storage locations are accessed.

Note that if an element of a mapping is of direct type, this means it will always start on a slot boundary, even if it doesn’t normally have to. In any case, regardless of type, the element is stored exactly the same as it would be anywhere else in storage.

Pointers to storage

Pointers to storage are absolute and are measured in words (slots), not bytes. (Such pointers are most easily regarded as pointing to the full slot, rather than a byte position within it; if you like, though, you can imagine it pointing to the latest position within the word, rather than the earliest, in accordance with the right-to-left nature of storage multivalue types, and the use of the low byte in types bytes and string.) This might seem to limit the locations such a pointer can point to; however, pointers to storage will always point to a variable of multivalue or lookup type, and such variables always start on a word boundary, so there is no problem here.

Note that pointers to storage have a default value of 0x0. As stated earlier, one must beware – making use of such a pointer can lead to nonsense! Such a pointer should not actually be used. (And note again that while it is legal to leave a storage pointer uninitialized, it is not legal to delete one.)

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