#include #include // printf // Q&A: https://www.sololearn.com/Discuss/780846/?ref=app // What is the different between ". " And '. ' in c++? using namespace std; union flipFlopU { char* string; unsigned int* ptr = new unsigned int; } flipFlop; int main() { cout << hex; char* str = ". "; flipFlop.string = str; cout << "Text value of string:" /*<< " @" << flipFlop.ptr*/ << " \"" << flipFlop.string << "\" (sanity check)\n"; cout << "Hex value of string (as integer via union): \n"<< *flipFlop.ptr; unsigned int multibyte = '. '; cout << "\n\nHex value, multibyte character sequence '. ':\n" << multibyte << "\n\n"; cout << "Assigning multibyte sequence to flipFlop\n"; flipFlop.ptr = &multibyte; flipFlop.string[4] = 0; // null terminator cout << " Resulting text value: \"" << flipFlop.string << "\" (flipped)\n"; cout << " Resulting hex value: " << *flipFlop.ptr << "\n"; cout << "\n=====================================\nWhy are they reversed?\nLet's examine a longer string:\n=====================================\n"; char* storageOrder = "abcdefg"; cout << "String \"" << storageOrder << "\" (7 chars) internals:\n"; cout << " (0x61 == ASCII 97 == a)\n\n"; // integer 0 cout << "Integer 0 at byte d c b a\n"; printf("offset %d of [%s]: %08x\n", 0, storageOrder, *(int*)(&storageOrder[0]) ); cout << " ^^^^\n\n"; // integer 1 cout << "Integer 1 at byte \\0 g f e\n"; printf("offset %d of [%s]: %08x\n", 4, storageOrder, *(int*)(&storageOrder[4]) ); cout << " ^^^0\n\n"; cout << "Notice that string's bytes are stored in apparent reverse order as integers go up:\n\n"; cout << "Integer 1: [ gfe]\n"; cout << "Integer 0: [dcba] bytes go up, low to high\n"; cout << "\nWhat you're seeing is an effect of little-endian byte order in strings.\nSpecifying multibyte characters stores bytes as written (YOUR byte order) without a null terminator."; return 0; }

". " vs '. ' (integer byte order)