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cpointersvoidvoid-pointers

When to use a void pointer over a char pointer?

In which situation should we prefer a void pointer over a char pointer or vice-versa?

As a matter of fact both can be type cast to any of the data types.

Solution

  • A void pointer is a pointer to "any type", and it needs to be converted to a pointer to an actual type before it may be dereferenced.

    A pointer to char is a pointer to char, that happens to have the property that you could also access (parts of) other types through it.

    You should use void * when the meaning is intended to be "any type" (or one of several types, etc). You should use char * when you access either a char (obviously), or the individual bytes of another type as raw bytes.