= Byte Order and Byte Swapping =

'''Include File(s):'''  [http://hg.libsdl.org/SDL/file/default/include/SDL_endian.h SDL_endian.h]


== Introduction ==
This category contains functions for handling endian-specific values.

Simple data types like integers and floats consist of several bytes. A 32bit integer (Sint32), for example, uses four bytes (as each byte has 8 bits). Endianness describes how the system orders the bytes of this value in memory.

Endianness comes in two forms - big and little.
* SDL_LIL_ENDIAN means byte order is 1234, where the least significant byte is stored first
* SDL_BIG_ENDIAN means byte order is 4321, where the most significant byte is stored first


''Example:''  Imagine the 32bit integer number ```16,909,060``` in decimal.
 In hexadecimal that would be ~+```0x01020304```+~. <br/>
 ```0x01``` is the most significant byte (the one that increases the value the most.  {{{0x04}}} is the least significant byte (as it increases the value the least).<br/>

 When that is stored in memory on a little-endian system they are stored with the least significant byte first, producing the byte stream:
  ```0x04 0x03 0x02 0x01```<br/>

 When that is stored in memory on a big-endian system they are stored with the most significant byte first, producing the byte stream:
  ```0x01 0x02 0x03 0x04```<br/>

For further information about endianness read the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness Wikipedia] article on the subject.

SDL_BYTEORDER is a macro that corresponds to the byte order used by the processor type it was compiled for.
* SDL_BYTEORDER is SDL_LIL_ENDIAN for x86, x64, and similar systems that use the little endian byte order.
* SDL_BYTEORDER is SDL_BIG_ENDIAN for PowerPC and similar systems that use the big endian byte order.


== Functions ==
<<FullSearchCached(category:CategoryEndian -CategoryEnum -CategoryStruct -title:SGFunctions)>>

<!-- BEGIN CATEGORY LIST -->
* [[SDL_Swap16]]
* [[SDL_Swap32]]
* [[SDL_Swap64]]
* [[SDL_SwapBE16]]
* [[SDL_SwapBE32]]
* [[SDL_SwapBE64]]
* [[SDL_SwapFloat]]
* [[SDL_SwapFloatBE]]
* [[SDL_SwapFloatLE]]
* [[SDL_SwapLE16]]
* [[SDL_SwapLE32]]
* [[SDL_SwapLE64]]
<!-- END CATEGORY LIST -->
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