Question

Many languages and frameworks offer a “byte array” type, but the C++ standard library does not. What type is appropriate to use for medium-sized¹, resizable byte arrays and how can I use that type efficiently? (particularly: allocating, passing as parameters and destroying)

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^{1: By medium-sized I mean less than a 100 MB.}

Answer 1

You can use std::vector<unsigned char>, or as @Oli suggested std::vector<uint8_t>. Yes, you can pass around it, without copying the whole contents.

void f(std::vector<unsigned char> & byteArray) //pass by reference : no copy!
{
     //
}

std::vector<unsigned char>  byteArray;
//...
f(byteArray); //no copying is being made!