"Endianness" Pronounce,Meaning And Examples

"Endianness" Meaning

Endianness refers to the order in which bytes of a multi-byte value are stored or transmitted in a computer system. It is also known as byte order. There are two basic forms of endianness: big-endian and little-endian.

Big-endian: In big-endian systems, the most significant byte or the highest-order byte is stored first, followed by the least significant byte or the lowest-order byte. This means that the byte with the highest value is stored first.

Little-endian: In little-endian systems, the least significant byte or the lowest-order byte is stored first, followed by the most significant byte or the highest-order byte. This means that the byte with the lowest value is stored first.

For example, the number 1234 in decimal would be stored as 12 34 in big-endian system, and as 34 12 in little-endian system.

"Endianness" Examples

Endianness Examples

1. In Computer Architecture

In computer architecture, endianness refers to the manner in which bytes are ordered in a sequence of bytes. For example, a little-endian system stores the most significant byte (MSB) of a word first, while a big-endian system stores the least significant byte (LSB) first.
c
// Little-endian
uint16_t x 0x1234;
uint8_t bytes[2];
memcpy(bytes, &x, 2);
printf("%x %x\n", bytes[0], bytes[1]); // Output: 34 12

2. In Networking

In networking, endianness can affect how data is transmitted and received. For instance, if a big-endian system sends data to a little-endian system, the receiving system needs to reverse the order of the bytes to correctly interpret the data.
c
// Big-endian sends 0x1234 to little-endian receiver
uint16_t x 0x1234;
uint8t sendbytes[2];
memcpy(send_bytes, &x, 2);
send(send_bytes, 2,sock);

// Little-endian receiver receives and reverses bytes
uint8t receivebytes[2];
recv(receive_bytes, 2,sock);
uint16t reversedx;
reversedx ((receivebytes[0] << 8) | receive_bytes[1]);
printf("%x\n", reversed_x); // Output: 3412

3. In Binary Data Files

In binary data files, endianness can be used to identify the file format and header layout. For example, a big-endian file format might store integers in the most significant byte first, while a little-endian file format might store integers in the least significant byte first.
python

Big-endian file format

with open('bigendianfile.bin', 'rb') as f:
byte_order f.read(2)
if byte_order b'\x01\x00':

File is big-endian

int_size 2
else:

Incorrect file format

raise ValueError

Little-endian file format

with open('littleendianfile.bin', 'rb') as f:
byte_order f.read(2)
if byte_order b'\x00\x01':

File is little-endian