Why is there no 'byte' data type in C/C++? – C / C++ – Fórum – Programujte.com

Hi,

I never noticed it before, but after doing some java programming and coming back to C/C++ I've noticed there isn't a 'byte' data type.Why is that? It seems wrong to use a 'char' to store data that isn't character data. Is char guaranteed to be only one byte in c/c++, and wchar_t is what's used for unicode (or is that MS specific).Does this bother anyone else?

Please help.

I didn't find the right solution from the Internet.

References:-

https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?t=558737

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Thanks!

#1 JesseVoss
Short answer: Yes, char is always one byte.

Medium answer: There is char, signed char and unsigned char; char could be signed or unsigned char. It is implementation defined. It could cause problems do use bit operators (& or I) when signed and unsigned types are mixed. See UAC.

Long answer: What is byte? How many bits have one byte? I belive that C99 and later specifies at least 8-bit with no padding. But it could be 10-bit or even 13-bit. It depends on architecture. Next, char is smallest adresable unit and any other data type could be accessed as series of chars.

Finally, if you need 8-bit unsigned data type use uint8_t.

Java byte is 8-bit signed, C/C++ has int8_t data type.

Both uint8_t and int8_t are defined in stdint.h (or cstdint) and are available only on platforms, which supports them (all PC compatible, most SOCs...)