Hi,
The extended precision long double uses only 10 bytes, but is assigned either 12 bytes (32-bit architecture) or 16 bytes (64-bit architecture).
On my little endian machine, the unused (meaningless) bytes are at the high end (at indexes 10-11 or 10-15).
So, I have a C for loop that iterates through the meaningful bytes: 
for(i = 0; i < 10; i++) { do stuff with the byte at index number i }

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I'd like to know whether I can use the exact same code on a big endian machine - or whether doing so will actually access the unused bytes.
NOTE: The order in which I iterate through the meaningful bytes is irrelevant for my exercise - but the loop must avoid those unused bytes.

Unfortunately, I don't have a suitable big endian machine on which I can test ... and I haven't managed to google up the answer yet.
Anyone know the answer ?

Cheers,
Rob

In reply to [OT] Endianness and extended precision (80-bit) long doubles by syphilis

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