Final answer:
To determine if a computer is big-endian or little-endian, you can write a program that initializes a variable to a specific value then examines the memory byte order. If the low-order byte is stored first, it is little-endian; if the high-order byte is first, it is big-endian.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question pertains to a program that can identify whether a computer system uses a big-endian or little-endian method for storing data. This can be determined by examining how the system stores and accesses the bytes that make up a multi-byte value.
The endianess refers to the order of the bytes within the value, where big-endian implies the highest significant byte is stored first and little-endian implies the lowest significant byte is stored first.
To check the endianess, you could use a simple program that initializes a numeric variable with a known value and then checks the order of the bytes in memory. For example:
int main(void) {
unsigned int value = 0x1;
char *byte = (char *)&value;
if(byte[0] == 1) {
printf("System is little-endian.\\");
} else {
printf("System is big-endian.\\");
}
return 0;
}
This program creates an unsigned int and then uses a char* pointer to look at the first byte. If the first byte contains the 1, which is the least significant part of the hexadecimal number 0x1, it means the system is little-endian because it placed the least significant byte first. Conversely, if the first byte is 0, the system is big-endian because it placed the most significant byte first.