Is using char as a bool in C bad practice?

Question

Is there any downside to using

typedef char bool;
enum boolean { false, true };

in C to provide a semantic boolean type?

Answer 1

I would suggest using a bit to represent true or false, rather than a character. A character uses 8 bits, We can set 1 for true and 0 for false with just 1 bit. That will be more memory efficient and also satisfies the purpose. (e.g) char flag:1;

Reference : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_field