should use size t or ssize t

Question

At my code  I do not use int or unsigned int  I only use size t or ssize t  for portable  For example   typedef size t intc         instead of unsigned int  typedef ssize t uintc       instead of int    Because strlen  string  vector    all use size t  so I usually use size t  And I only use ssize t when it may be negative   But I find that      The unsigned integer types are ideal for uses that treat storage as a bit array         Using an unsigned instead of an int to gain one more bit to represent positive integers is almost never a good idea         Attempts to ensure that some values are positive by declaring variables unsigned will typically be defeated by the implicit conversion rules    in the book The C   Programming Language   So I am puzzled  Am I wrong  Why does the STL not abide by the suggest on the book

User · Answer

ssize t is used for functions whose return value could either be a valid size  or a negative value to indicate an error   It is guaranteed to be able to store values at least in the range  -1  SSIZE MAX   SSIZE MAX is system-dependent    So you should use size t whenever you mean to return a size in bytes  and ssize t whenever you would return either a size in bytes or a  negative  error value    See  http   pubs opengroup org onlinepubs 007908775 xsh systypes h html

User · Answer

ssize t is not included in the standard and isn t portable  size t should be used when handling the size of objects  there s ptrdiff t too  for pointer differences

[c++] should use size_t or ssize_t

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