`swapbytes`

Reverses the byte order of integers (endianness swap).

Category: Language Fundamentals > Operators and Elementary Operations

Syntax

Y = swapbytes(X)

Reverses the bytes of each element of X.

Description

Data from files or network protocols may be stored with the opposite byte order from the one your machine uses. swapbytes converts between little-endian and big-endian: swapbytes(uint16(1)) is 256, because the bytes 00 01 become 01 00, and swapbytes(uint32(1)) is 16777216.

Applying it twice gives back the original value. 8-bit types have one byte, so they are unchanged.

Input arguments

X: Array of an integer class (int16, uint16, int32, uint32, int64, uint64) or single or double.

Output arguments

Y: Array of the same class and size as X with swapped byte order.

Example

swapbytes(uint16(1))
swapbytes(uint16([1 256]))
swapbytes(uint32(1))

Output

ans = uint16
   256
ans = 1×2 uint16 row vector

   256     1
ans = uint32
   16777216

swapbytes