Endianness
Endianness is the convention that determines the order in which the bytes of a multibyte value are represented in memory or a serialized form.
Modern C, Third Edition
Endianness is the ordering convention used to encode the bytes of multi-byte values in a representation.
- How it is used
- Explains how C object representations order bytes and why that ordering matters for binary data exchange.
- How deep it goes
- Demonstrates byte inspection with a union and output, then stops short of standardizing the observed ordering.
- Examples
- Uses a 0xAABBCCDD unsigned value, a byte-inspecting union, and fread/fwrite binary-stream guidance.
- What you can do after
- Diagnose byte ordering by overlaying an unsigned value with an unsigned-char array and interpret binary portability limits.
Rust in Action: Systems programming concepts and techniques
Endianness is the convention governing the order in which the bytes of a multibyte value are laid out in memory.
- How it is used
- Explains how CPUs lay out multibyte integers and why binary artifacts may fail when moved between systems.
- How deep it goes
- Defines byte order, derives significance from binary place values, and demonstrates the behavior with executable Rust code.
- Examples
- Uses AA BB CC DD byte sequences, reversed layouts, powers-of-two place values, and a Rust transmutation program.
- What you can do after
- Evaluate how a byte pattern will be interpreted and inspect a machine's endianness with a Rust program.
Read how Rust in Action: Systems programming concepts and techniques explains endianness →
Latency
Byte order is the ordering of the bytes that represent a multi-byte value in memory or in a serialized representation.
- How it is used
- Explains how byte order affects serialization, deserialization, memory copies, and low-latency optimization.
- How deep it goes
- Defines little- and big-endian layouts with 32-bit examples, but stops short of implementation code or measurement procedures.
- Examples
- Uses a Rust order structure, a 32-bit order identifier, hexadecimal byte sequences, and JSON serialization.
- What you can do after
- Evaluate how little- or big-endian layout changes the byte representation and transformation work for serialized values.
Related concepts
- big-endianincludes · Big-endian is an ordering convention in which the most significant byte or component of a multibyte value comes before its less significant components.
- little-endianincludes · Little-endian is a byte-order convention in which the least significant byte of a multibyte value comes first, at the lowest address or earliest position.
- implementation definedconfigures · Implementation-defined behavior is behavior for which a language standard permits an implementation to choose among specified alternatives and requires it to document its choice.
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