Best way to represent raw bytes in a std::vector?

Question

I'm working with the ZeroMQ library which uses void * to represent blocks of arbitrary binary data. However I'd like to use std::vector to copy and move these blocks around. What is the preferred, idiomatic way to make a std::vector representing raw bytes? I'm currently using a std::vector<unsigned char> but I want to make sure my code makes sense to other people.

Answer 1

Either

std::vector<unsigned char>

or

#include <cstdint>

std::vector<std::uint8_t>

both seem fine to me.

Answer 2

If you don't know the nature of your data, unsigned char is the smallest chunk of bits that you can represent without getting messy. Therefore it is a common type for any kind of arbitrary memory block.

So your vector looks perfectly fine the way it is.