SET-BYTE-ORDER statement

Sets an internal indicator designating the byte-order of the data pointed to by the MEMPTR variable.


SET-BYTE-ORDER( `memptr` ) = `integer-expression`

An expression that returns a MEMPTR.

An expression that returns an integer value that will be used to indicate the byte-ordering of the data in the memory to which the MEMPTR points. integer-expression must be one of the reserved keywords defined in Table 61 or its corresponding value. If integer-expression is not valid, ABL generates an error.

Table 61: Byte order options
Keyword	Value	Description
HOST-BYTE-ORDER	1	Same format as the machine where the process that calls SET-BYTE-ORDER is running.
BIG-ENDIAN	2	A multiple-byte data type is stored with the high-order byte in the lowest address reserved for the data; successively lower-order bytes are stored at successively higher addresses. Note that Internet protocols use BIG-ENDIAN byte-ordering.
LITTLE-ENDIAN	3	A multiple-byte data type is stored with the low-order byte in the lowest address reserved for the data; successively higher-order bytes are stored at successively higher addresses.

The byte order for a MEMPTR is HOST-BYTE-ORDER by default, that is, if SET-BYTE-ORDER has not been called for a given MEMPTR, its byte order is HOST-BYTE-ORDER.

SET-BYTE-ORDER by itself never affects data currently in the MEMPTR, that is, it does not actually re-order the data. It only affects how subsequent calls to the PUT- statements and GET- functions work with that MEMPTR variable.