C Macro definition to determine big endian or litt

Question

Is there a one line macro definition to determine the endianness of the machine. I am using the following code but converting it to macro would be too long.

unsigned char test_endian( void )
{
    int test_var = 1;
    unsigned char test_endian* = (unsigned char*)&test_var;

    return (test_endian[0] == NULL);
}

Answer 1

If you are looking for a compile time test and you are using gcc, you can do:

#if __BYTE_ORDER__ == __ORDER_LITTLE_ENDIAN__

See gcc documentation for more information.

Answer 2

I believe this is what was asked for. I only tested this on a little endian machine under msvc. Someone plese confirm on a big endian machine.

    #define LITTLE_ENDIAN 0x41424344UL 
    #define BIG_ENDIAN    0x44434241UL
    #define PDP_ENDIAN    0x42414443UL
    #define ENDIAN_ORDER  ('ABCD') 

    #if ENDIAN_ORDER==LITTLE_ENDIAN
        #error "machine is little endian"
    #elif ENDIAN_ORDER==BIG_ENDIAN
        #error "machine is big endian"
    #elif ENDIAN_ORDER==PDP_ENDIAN
        #error "jeez, machine is PDP!"
    #else
        #error "What kind of hardware is this?!"
    #endif

As a side note (compiler specific), with an aggressive compiler you can use "dead code elimination" optimization to achieve the same effect as a compile time #if like so:

    unsigned yourOwnEndianSpecific_htonl(unsigned n)
    {
        static unsigned long signature= 0x01020304UL; 
        if (1 == (unsigned char&)signature) // big endian
            return n;
        if (2 == (unsigned char&)signature) // the PDP style
        {
            n = ((n << 8) & 0xFF00FF00UL) | ((n>>8) & 0x00FF00FFUL);
            return n;
        }
        if (4 == (unsigned char&)signature) // little endian
        {
            n = (n << 16) | (n >> 16);
            n = ((n << 8) & 0xFF00FF00UL) | ((n>>8) & 0x00FF00FFUL);
            return n;
        }
        // only weird machines get here
        return n; // ?
    }

The above relies on the fact that the compiler recognizes the constant values at compile time, entirely removes the code within if (false) { ... } and replaces code like if (true) { foo(); } with foo(); The worst case scenario: the compiler does not do the optimization, you still get correct code but a bit slower.

Answer 3

The 'C network library' offers functions to handle endian'ness. Namely htons(), htonl(), ntohs() and ntohl() ...where n is "network" (ie. big-endian) and h is "host" (ie. the endian'ness of the machine running the code).

These apparent 'functions' are (commonly) defined as macros [see <netinet/in.h>], so there is no runtime overhead for using them.

The following macros use these 'functions' to evaluate endian'ness.

#include <arpa/inet.h>
#define  IS_BIG_ENDIAN     (1 == htons(1))
#define  IS_LITTLE_ENDIAN  (!IS_BIG_ENDIAN)

In addition:

The only time I ever need to know the endian'ness of a system is when I write-out a variable [to a file/other] which may be read-in by another system of unknown endian'ness (for cross-platform compatability) ...In cases such as these, you may prefer to use the endian functions directly:

#include <arpa/inet.h>

#define JPEG_MAGIC  (('J'<<24) | ('F'<<16) | ('I'<<8) | 'F')

// Result will be in 'host' byte-order
unsigned long  jpeg_magic = JPEG_MAGIC;

// Result will be in 'network' byte-order (IE. Big-Endian/Human-Readable)
unsigned long  jpeg_magic = htonl(JPEG_MAGIC);

Answer 4

Whilst there is no portable #define or something to rely upon, platforms do provide standard functions for converting to and from your 'host' endian.

Generally, you do storage - to disk, or network - using 'network endian', which is BIG endian, and local computation using host endian (which on x86 is LITTLE endian). You use htons() and ntohs() and friends to convert between the two.

Answer 5

Quiet late but... If you absolutely must have a macro AND ultra-portable code, detect and set it from your built environment (cmake/autotools).

Here's a simple program to just get it done, suitable for grepping:

#if __STDC_VERSION__ < 199901L
#error "Requires C99 compatibility"
#endif
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdio.h>

const char MAGIC[4] = {0xDE, 0xAD, 0xBE, 0xEF};

int
main(void) {
  uint32_t magical = *(const uint32_t *)MAGIC;
  switch(magical) {
    case 0xEFBEADDE: printf("little\n"); break;
    case 0xDEADBEEF: printf("big\n"); break;
    case 0xADDEEFBE: printf("pdp\n"); break;
    default: for(; magical; magical >>= 8) {
        switch(magical & 0xff) {
          case 0xDE: printf("3"); break;
          case 0xAD: printf("2"); break;
          case 0xBE: printf("1"); break;
          default: printf("0"); } 
      } printf("\n");}
  return (0);
}

Answer 6

Macro to find endiannes

#define ENDIANNES() ((1 && 1 == 0) ? printf("Big-Endian"):printf("Little-Endian"))

or

#include <stdio.h>

#define ENDIAN() { \
volatile unsigned long ul = 1;\
volatile unsigned char *p;\
p = (volatile unsigned char *)&ul;\
if (*p == 1)\
puts("Little endian.");\
else if (*(p+(sizeof(unsigned long)-1)) == 1)\
puts("Big endian.");\
else puts("Unknown endian.");\
}

int main(void) 
{
       ENDIAN();
       return 0;
}