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Byte Ordering →

Byte ordering, also known as endianness, refers to the way computer systems store and retrieve individual bytes of data in memory or when transmitting data over a network. There are two common byte orderings: big-endian and little-endian.

1. Big-Endian: In a big-endian system, the most significant byte (the one with the highest value) is stored at the lowest memory address. It's like writing numbers where you start with the biggest digits on the left (e.g., "123" is stored as 0x01, 0x02, 0x03).
2. Little-Endian: In a little-endian system, the least significant byte is stored at the lowest memory address. It's like writing numbers where you start with the smallest digits on the left (e.g., "123" is stored as 0x03, 0x02, 0x01).

The choice between big-endian and little-endian is a design decision made by hardware manufacturers and software developers. Different computer architectures may use one or the other, and it's important to consider this when working with data that might be shared between systems with different endianness. Otherwise, data can be misinterpreted, leading to errors.