Some time ago I had to write some data marshalling tools, and I had to perform byte swapping in both Delphi and C++ (we had to talk to a Sun box). Here is the code that will perform byte swapping on any type (single, double, extended, etc) procedure PerformByteSwapping(DataPtr : Pointer;NoBytes : integer); var i : integer; dp : PChar; tmp : char; begin // Perform a sanity check to make sure that the function was called properly if (NoBytes > 1) then begin Dec(NoBytes); dp := PChar(DataPtr); // we are now safe to perform the byte swapping for i := NoBytes downto (NoBytes div 2 + 1) do begin tmp := Pchar(Integer(dp)+i)^; Pchar(Integer(dp)+i)^ := Pchar(Integer(dp)+NoBytes-i)^; Pchar(Integer(dp)+NoBytes-i)^ := tmp; end; end; end; The way to use this function is as follows:: j : integer; x : double; y : extended; PerformByteSwapping(@i,SizeOf(i)); //to swap an integer PerformByteSwapping(@x,SizeOf(x)); //to swap a double PerformByteSwapping(@y,SizeOf(y)); //to swap an extended. The function works very well, and has been tested thoroughly. On the C side I could follow a more elegant approach - such as this:: //first define a macro that will enable easy usage :: #define SwapBytes(x) PerformByteSwapping((char *)&(x),sizeof((x))) int PerformByteSwapping(char *DataPtr, int NumBytes) { char tmp; char *OtherEnd; /* Perform a sanity check to make sure that the function was called properly*/ if ((NumBytes <= 1) || !DataPtr) return(0); OtherEnd = &DataPtr[NumBytes-1]; do { tmp = *DataPtr; *DataPtr++ = *OtherEnd; *OtherEnd-- = tmp; } while (DataPtr < OtherEnd); return(1); } //the macro makes things easier ... eg int i; double x; SwapBytes(i); //with macro substitution things are easier to code and become more readable SwapBytes(x); P.S. If anyone gets this message please acknowledge, as my messages did not make it to the list lately. I hope this helps. Cheers. teo@partnership-group.com.au