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"char star" is easy to remember, doesn't matter if its the correct term or not, people will know what you're talking about.

What I use depends on the context: If I'm reading code out loud, I say "char star". If I'm explaining a concept, I say "character pointer" or "byte pointer", depending on which makes the most sense. For example, I might say "this variable is a byte pointer to the locked pixel buffer" for a "char*", or I might say "this variable is a character pointer to the next character being read from the file".

Edit: Also, how do you pronounce "char"? I simply say "char" with a "ch+arr", but I've actually heard it pronounced "care" (kay+err), since that's the way the first part of "character" ("care-akter") is pronounced.

Definitely char(acter) pointer over char(acter) star. If someone said char star over the phone to me I'd be wondering what the hell they were talking about, but then I'm dutch and I don't do C/C++ professionally (unfortunately).

I read "char" as "care", but my complaint about "char star" was specifically about people who say "char" as in charred wood.

Most of the people I've worked with say "char" as in charred wood. I've always said "care", but co-workers thought that was weird.

It's kinda like coding styles - there are a lot of programmers in the world, and there's inevitably going to be some different "dialects". I don't view any as wrong or right, and mostly just think it's quirky and funny when dealing with some lingo you're not familiar with.

I say byte.













But people don't follow me

char pointer.

In Slovenia, we always refer to it as "kazalec", a pointer, never star.

BTW I've tried translating "kazalec" with google translate, so if anyone wants to try from english to slovenian it works great, via versa it gets another meaning.