Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks
Problems? Is your data what you think it is?
 
PerlMonks  

Re: How to easily convert the pack function from little endian to big endian

by Marshall (Canon)
on Aug 10, 2012 at 14:49 UTC ( [id://986762]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to How to easily convert the pack function from little endian to big endian

You might find the wiki article Endianness interesting.

Since you are using the term "$rec_len", the perhaps significant thing here is what is called Network order.

The Internet Protocol defines big-endian as the standard network byte order used for all numeric values in the packet headers and by many higher level protocols and file formats that are designed for use over IP....other stuff about the socket API...

The internet wouldn't work if there weren't some standards for this stuff. Often communicating over the internet requires conversion from the little endian format to big endian (Intel is a major force!). Local file storage is usually done in the native way the platform most naturally uses.

This whole business gets really messy if you are transferring a file between different architectures -> you just have to know what it is that you are dealing with. Standards for floating point binary are problematic.

But often you do know - example if it is say a Microsoft .WAV file - it is little endian and there is a detailed spec that defines all this.

Anyway sorry there is no "one size fits all" that can be universally discovered on the "fly". I should note that if you are defining the protocol, converting to an ascii representation within a file is "thinkable" if the performance hit is not a problem.

Log In?
Username:
Password:

What's my password?
Create A New User
Domain Nodelet?
Node Status?
node history
Node Type: note [id://986762]
help
Chatterbox?
and the web crawler heard nothing...

How do I use this?Last hourOther CB clients
Other Users?
Others browsing the Monastery: (5)
As of 2024-03-19 11:38 GMT
Sections?
Information?
Find Nodes?
Leftovers?
    Voting Booth?

    No recent polls found