- Byte order(endianness)
the sequence in which bytes are arranged(to form larger values in computer memory or when transmitting data)
- Big-endian
The most significant byte is stored first (at the lowest memory address) with decreasing significance in subsequent bytes. This is often called “network byte order” as it’s commonly used in network protocols.
- Big-endian is often considered more intuitive for humans to read, as it aligns with how we typically write numbers.
- Network protocols often specify a standard byte order (usually big-endian) to ensure consistency across different systems.
- Little-endia
The least significant byte is stored first (at the lowest memory address) with increasing significance in subsequent bytes. This is the dominant ordering for many processor architectures, including x86 and most ARM implementations. Key points about byte order:
- Little-endian can be more efficient for some low-level operations in computing
- It’s important for data interchange between different systems, especially in networking and file formats.
- bi-endian
Some architectures, like ARM and PowerPC, support both orders and are called “bi-endian.”
- When working with multi-byte data across different systems, it’s crucial to account for potential byte order differences to ensure correct interpretation of data
- Programming languages and APIs often provide functions to convert between host byte order and network byte order (to handle these differences transparently).
Understanding byte order is essential for
- low-level programming
- network protocol implementation
- working with binary file formats