How can I determine whether a machine's byte order is big-endian or little-endian?
One way is to use a pointer:
int x = 1;
if(*(char *)&x == 1)
printf("little-endian\n");
else printf("big-endian\n");
It's also possible to use a union.
See also question 10.16.
References:
H&S Sec. 6.1.2 pp. 163-4
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