Can I turn unsigned char into char and vice versa?

Question

I want to use a function that expects data like this:

void process(char *data_in, int data_len);

So it\'s just processing some bytes really

Answer 1

Semantically, passing between unsigned char * and char * are safe, and even though casting between them, so as in c++.

However, consider the following sample code:

#include "stdio.h"

void process_unsigned(unsigned char *data_in, int data_len) {
    int i=data_len;
    unsigned short product=1;

    for(; i--; product*=data_in[i]) 
        ;

    for(i=sizeof(product); i--; ) {
        data_in[i]=((unsigned char *)&product)[i];
        printf("%d\r\n", data_in[i]);
    }
}

void process(char *data_in, int data_len) {
    int i=data_len;
    unsigned short product=1;

    for(; i--; product*=data_in[i]) 
        ;

    for(i=sizeof(product); i--; ) {
        data_in[i]=((unsigned char *)&product)[i];
        printf("%d\r\n", data_in[i]);
    }
}

void main() {
    unsigned char 
        a[]={1, -1}, 
        b[]={1, -1};

    process_unsigned(a, sizeof(a));
    process(b, sizeof(b));
    getch();
}

output:

0
255
-1
-1

All the code inside process_unsigned and process are just IDENTICAL. The only difference is unsigned and signed. This sample shows that the code in the black box, do be affected by the SIGN, and nothing is guaranteed between the callee and caller.

Thus I would say that, it's applicable of passing only, but none of any other possibilities is guaranteed.