Re: Help: How to determine big/little endian?

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Article #3686

#3686

From: Stephen Baynes
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 1995 07:22

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1421 bytes

Frank DENIS (Jedi/Sector One) (denis_r@epita.fr) wrote:

: You might try something like :

:    short a = 0x1234;
:    
:    if (*((char *) &a + sizeof(short) - 1) == 0x34)
:      type = BIG_ENDIAN;
:    else
:      type = LITTLE_ENDIAN;

Beware of char not being 8 bits!

Beware of mixed big/little for integers of size > 2
        Eg a 4 byte integer could store 0x12345678 as any of
                12 34 56 78    Big endian
                34 12 78 56    !
                78 56 43 12    Little endian
                56 78 12 34    !
        
Beware of holes!

Beware of other things that could exist in theory but I have not met in
practice like bit reordering between different types.

--
Stephen Baynes                              baynes@mulsoc2.serigate.philips.nl
Philips Semiconductors Ltd
Southampton                                 My views are my own.
United Kingdom

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!phcoms4.seri.philips.nl!panther!baynes
From: baynes@ukpsshp1.serigate.philips.nl (Stephen Baynes)
Subject: Re: Help: How to determine big/little endian?
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Date: Wed, 9 Aug 1995 07:22:30 GMT
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