ICanConvertToLittleEndian

The ICanConvertToLittleEndian trait is for structures that can convert to Little Endian format.

It provides the ReverseEndianIfNeeded method for reversing the endian of the data on a big endian machine, if required.

Methods

ReverseEndianIfNeeded

public void ReverseEndianIfNeeded();

Reverses the endian of the data if needed. Only call this method once, or endian will be reversed again.
This is intended to be used in cases where you receive a structure from an external source, e.g. reading an .nx file from disk or transferred over the network.

The implementing methods of this interface are defined as follows

if (BitConverter.IsLittleEndian)
    return;

ReverseEndian(); 

The BitConverter.IsLittleEndian is evaluated at compile-time (JIT-time) and is a no-op on Little Endian machines.

Usage

public struct MyStruct : ICanConvertToLittleEndian
{
    public int MyValue;

    public void ReverseEndianIfNeeded()
    {
        if (BitConverter.IsLittleEndian)
            return;

        MyValue = BinaryPrimitives.ReverseEndianness(MyValue);
    }
}

In the above example, MyStruct implements the ICanConvertToLittleEndian interface.
The ReverseEndianIfNeeded method checks if the system is Little Endian. If not, it reverses the endian of MyValue.