| .. | ||
| big_endian_test.v | ||
| big_endian.v | ||
| little_endian_test.v | ||
| little_endian.v | ||
| README.md | ||
Description
encoding.binary contains utility functions for converting between an array of bytes ([]u8)
and unsigned integers of various widths (u16, u32, and u64).
There are two ways in which bytes can be encoded:
- Little endian: The least significant bytes are stored first, followed by the most significant bytes.
- Big endian: The most significant bytes are stored first, opposite to the little endian convention.
For example, let us take the number 0x12345678. In little endian, the bytes are extracted as
0x78, 0x56, 0x34, and 0x12. In big endian, the bytes are 0x12, 0x34, 0x56,
and 0x78.
We follow a similar procedure when we want to go the other way around. Consider the second
sequence of bytes in the previous example: 0x12, 0x34, 0x56, and 0x78. If we encode
this sequence in little endian format, we get the integer 0x78563412. If we encode this
sequence in big endian, we get 0x12345678.
NOTE: The functions in this module assume appropriately sized u8 arrays. If the sizes are not valid, the functions will panic.