char vs BYTE array to represent raw buffer data

Depends, what language and platform are you asking about?

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Original post by SiCrane Depends, what language and platform are you asking about?

Sorry I forgot to say that. I'm talking about C++ and windows

If you open WinDef.h, you will notice that BYTE is typedef'ed to unsigned char and thus the only difference is the signedness.

It might help readability (though, it would be better to give the variable itself a good name). The computer won't care whether it's written 'char' or 'BYTE' in your code.

byte makes more sense for readability. Unless your raw data is a sequence of actual characters, using the char type would be misleading.

I'm a fan of uint8_t myself. Makes the bit width of your buffer elements explicit, which is really the most important thing to know about them.

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Original post by coder0xff byte makes more sense for readability. Unless your raw data is a sequence of actual characters, using the char type would be misleading.

What he said