Working with big endian data

A have always favored little endian number representation over big-endian, which why I was saddened whn I found that TCP/IP, and most internet protocols (such as SSL3) use a big endian representation for numbers. Following is the type of construct I use when I need to work with a non-native data type in structs that I pull off of the network.

 typedef unsigned char uint8; 

 struct uint16 

  {

     uint8 n[2];

     operator unsigned short()

         { return

            ((unsigned short)n[0] << 8) + n[1];

         }

 };



Using a struct like this has two advantages:

• If a typedef unsigned short was used you could accidently use the number in situations without converting it. 
• The operator unsigned short ensures that the struct can be used as a normal unsigned short where required