convert big endian to little endian in C [without using provided func] [closed]

Solution 1:

Assuming what you need is a simple byte swap, try something like

Unsigned 16 bit conversion:

swapped = (num>>8) | (num<<8);

Unsigned 32-bit conversion:

swapped = ((num>>24)&0xff) | // move byte 3 to byte 0
                    ((num<<8)&0xff0000) | // move byte 1 to byte 2
                    ((num>>8)&0xff00) | // move byte 2 to byte 1
                    ((num<<24)&0xff000000); // byte 0 to byte 3

This swaps the byte orders from positions 1234 to 4321. If your input was 0xdeadbeef, a 32-bit endian swap might have output of 0xefbeadde.

The code above should be cleaned up with macros or at least constants instead of magic numbers, but hopefully it helps as is

EDIT: as another answer pointed out, there are platform, OS, and instruction set specific alternatives which can be MUCH faster than the above. In the Linux kernel there are macros (cpu_to_be32 for example) which handle endianness pretty nicely. But these alternatives are specific to their environments. In practice endianness is best dealt with using a blend of available approaches

Solution 2:

By including:

#include <byteswap.h>

you can get an optimized version of machine-dependent byte-swapping functions. Then, you can easily use the following functions:

__bswap_32 (uint32_t input)

__bswap_16 (uint16_t input)

Solution 3:

#include <stdint.h>


//! Byte swap unsigned short
uint16_t swap_uint16( uint16_t val ) 
{
    return (val << 8) | (val >> 8 );
}

//! Byte swap short
int16_t swap_int16( int16_t val ) 
{
    return (val << 8) | ((val >> 8) & 0xFF);
}

//! Byte swap unsigned int
uint32_t swap_uint32( uint32_t val )
{
    val = ((val << 8) & 0xFF00FF00 ) | ((val >> 8) & 0xFF00FF ); 
    return (val << 16) | (val >> 16);
}

//! Byte swap int
int32_t swap_int32( int32_t val )
{
    val = ((val << 8) & 0xFF00FF00) | ((val >> 8) & 0xFF00FF ); 
    return (val << 16) | ((val >> 16) & 0xFFFF);
}

Update : Added 64bit byte swapping

int64_t swap_int64( int64_t val )
{
    val = ((val << 8) & 0xFF00FF00FF00FF00ULL ) | ((val >> 8) & 0x00FF00FF00FF00FFULL );
    val = ((val << 16) & 0xFFFF0000FFFF0000ULL ) | ((val >> 16) & 0x0000FFFF0000FFFFULL );
    return (val << 32) | ((val >> 32) & 0xFFFFFFFFULL);
}

uint64_t swap_uint64( uint64_t val )
{
    val = ((val << 8) & 0xFF00FF00FF00FF00ULL ) | ((val >> 8) & 0x00FF00FF00FF00FFULL );
    val = ((val << 16) & 0xFFFF0000FFFF0000ULL ) | ((val >> 16) & 0x0000FFFF0000FFFFULL );
    return (val << 32) | (val >> 32);
}

Solution 4:

Here's a fairly generic version; I haven't compiled it, so there are probably typos, but you should get the idea,

void SwapBytes(void *pv, size_t n)
{
    assert(n > 0);

    char *p = pv;
    size_t lo, hi;
    for(lo=0, hi=n-1; hi>lo; lo++, hi--)
    {
        char tmp=p[lo];
        p[lo] = p[hi];
        p[hi] = tmp;
    }
}
#define SWAP(x) SwapBytes(&x, sizeof(x));

NB: This is not optimised for speed or space. It is intended to be clear (easy to debug) and portable.

Update 2018-04-04 Added the assert() to trap the invalid case of n == 0, as spotted by commenter @chux.

Solution 5:

If you need macros (e.g. embedded system):

#define SWAP_UINT16(x) (((x) >> 8) | ((x) << 8))
#define SWAP_UINT32(x) (((x) >> 24) | (((x) & 0x00FF0000) >> 8) | (((x) & 0x0000FF00) << 8) | ((x) << 24))