Proper Way To Initialize Unsigned Char*

Question

What is the proper way to initialize unsigned char*? I am currently doing this:

unsigned char* tempBuffer;
tempBuffer = \"\";

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Answer 1

The answer depends on what you inted to use the unsigned char for. A char is nothing else but a small integer, which is of size 8 bits on 99% of all implementations.

C happens to have some string support that fits well with char, but that doesn't limit the usage of char to strings.

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The proper way to initialize a pointer depends on 1) its scope and 2) its intended use.

If the pointer is declared static, and/or declared at file scope, then ISO C/C++ guarantees that it is initialized to NULL. Programming style purists would still set it to NULL to keep their style consistent with local scope variables, but theoretically it is pointless to do so.

As for what to initialize it to... set it to NULL. Don't set it to point at "", because that will allocate a static dummy byte containing a null termination, which will become a tiny little static memory leak as soon as the pointer is assigned to something else.

One may question why you need to initialize it to anything at all in the first place. Just set it to something valid before using it. If you worry about using a pointer before giving it a valid value, you should get a proper static analyzer to find such simple bugs. Even most compilers will catch that bug and give you a warning.