Endianness

Endianness is the order of bytes within a word data type when data is transmitted or addressed in computer memory. The main forms are big-endian, which places the most significant byte at the smallest address, and little-endian, which places the least significant byte there. Big-endian is dominant in networking protocols, while little-endian is dominant for several processor architectures. Some architectures support switchable byte order.

Main forms

Big-endian and little-endian

Big-endian order

Most significant byte at the smallest address

Networking use

Known as network order