Difference between byte and uint8 datatypes in solidity

Question

I want to understand if there is a difference between byte data-type and uint8 in solidity ?

Thanks

Answer 1

Runtime-wise, they are identical.

Compilation-wise, they are different:

• You cannot use arithmetic operations on byte operands
• You cannot assign numerical constants to byte variables

For example, instead of doing this:

uint8 x = 1;
uint8 y = 2;
uint8 z = x + y;

You need to do this:

byte x = byte(uint8(1));
byte y = byte(uint8(2));
byte z = byte(uint8(x) + uint8(y));