byteshifting
Byteshifting is the manipulation of data in which the position of bytes within a binary value or stream is moved by shifting operations. It is commonly implemented using bitwise shift operators or, in some contexts, rotate operations. The technique is a basic tool in low‑level programming, data serialization, and systems design, enabling extraction, reordering, and packing of bytes.
Shifts can be left or right. Logical shifts fill vacated positions with zeros, while arithmetic shifts replicate
Applications include endianness conversion, where bytes are reordered to switch between little-endian and big-endian representations; field
Notes and pitfalls: hardware and compilers provide shift and rotate instructions, but behavior varies by language