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##Consider exploiting the compiler

Your compiler already needs to know the endianness of the target system. There's a good chance that it exposes that information in a way you can access. gcc for example defines macros, so you can do:

#if ((__BYTE_ORDER__) == (__ORDER_LITTLE_ENDIAN__))

and have different code blocks as appropriate.

##Don't repeat yourself

Your current approach declares endian_test as a local variable. Depending on how clever your compiler is, it may optimize some of the work out for you. However you should consider giving it hints by declaring the variable as a static (you don't need a new instance for every call) const (you don't need to modify it after its declaration).

Consider exploiting the compiler

Your compiler already needs to know the endianness of the target system. There's a good chance that it exposes that information in a way you can access. gcc for example defines macros, so you can do:

#if ((__BYTE_ORDER__) == (__ORDER_LITTLE_ENDIAN__))

and have different code blocks as appropriate.

Don't repeat yourself

Your current approach declares endian_test as a local variable. Depending on how clever your compiler is, it may optimize some of the work out for you. However you should consider giving it hints by declaring the variable as a static (you don't need a new instance for every call) const (you don't need to modify it after its declaration).

Consider exploiting the compiler

Your compiler already needs to know the endianness of the target system. There's a good chance that it exposes that information in a way you can access. gcc for example defines macros, so you can do:

#if ((__BYTE_ORDER__) == (__ORDER_LITTLE_ENDIAN__))

and have different code blocks as appropriate.

Don't repeat yourself

Your current approach declares endian_test as a local variable. Depending on how clever your compiler is, it may optimize some of the work out for you. However you should consider giving it hints by declaring the variable as a static (you don't need a new instance for every call) const (you don't need to modify it after it's declaration).

##Consider exploiting the compiler

Your compiler already needs to know the endianness of the target system. There's a good chance that it exposes that information in a way you can access. gcc for example defines macros, so you can do:

#if ((__BYTE_ORDER__) == (__ORDER_LITTLE_ENDIAN__))

and have different code blocks as appropriate.

##Don't repeat yourself

Your current approach declares endian_test as a local variable. Depending on how clever your compiler is, it may optimize some of the work out for you. However you should consider giving it hints by declaring the variable as a static (you don't need a new instance for every call) const (you don't need to modify it after its declaration).