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Can anyone explain to me why
struct.pack('HB',1,2) gives 3 bytes, whereas struct.pack('BH',1,2)
gives 4 bytes?

-Steven

On Jun 26, 9:00 am, "Steven Clark" <steven.p.cl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Can anyone explain to me why
> struct.pack('HB',1,2) gives 3 bytes, whereas struct.pack('BH',1,2)
> gives 4 bytes?
>
Alignment -- read the manual.

On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 7:03 PM, John Machin <> wrote:
> On Jun 26, 9:00 am, "Steven Clark" <steven.p.cl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Can anyone explain to me why
>> struct.pack('HB',1,2) gives 3 bytes, whereas struct.pack('BH',1,2)
>> gives 4 bytes?
>>
> Alignment -- read the manual.
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>

If "the manual" is the help files for the struct module, I've read it
several times over. I understand endianness; I don't understand
alignment. Could anyone give a less cryptic / terse answer?

En Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:38:54 -0300, Steven Clark
<> escribi�:

> On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 7:03 PM, John Machin <>
> wrote:
>> On Jun 26, 9:00 am, "Steven Clark" <steven.p.cl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Can anyone explain to me why
>>> struct.pack('HB',1,2) gives 3 bytes, whereas struct.pack('BH',1,2)
>>> gives 4 bytes?
>>>
>> Alignment -- read the manual.
>
> If "the manual" is the help files for the struct module, I've read it
> several times over. I understand endianness; I don't understand
> alignment. Could anyone give a less cryptic / terse answer?

A good start might be this Wikipedia article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_structure_alignment>

--
Gabriel Genellina

On Jun 26, 12:38*pm, "Steven Clark" <steven.p.cl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 7:03 PM, John Machin <sjmac...@lexicon.net> wrote:
> > On Jun 26, 9:00 am, "Steven Clark" <steven.p.cl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Can anyone explain to me why
> >> struct.pack('HB',1,2) gives 3 bytes, whereas struct.pack('BH',1,2)
> >> gives 4 bytes?
>
> > Alignment -- read the manual.
> > --
> >http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>
> If "the manual" is the help files for the struct module, I've read it
> several times over. I understand endianness; I don't understand
> alignment. Could anyone give a less cryptic / terse answer?

google("struct alignment")

> For efficiency reasons many CPUs require particular primitive data
> types (integers/pointers of various sizes) to be placed in memory at
> particular boundaries. For example, shorts ("H" above, usually two bytes
> and probably always so in the struct module) are often required to be
> on even addresses, and longer objects to be on 4 or 8 byte boundaries.
>
> This allows for much more efficient memory access on many platforms
> (of course the rules depend on the platform). Although RAM _appears_ to
> the random access to arbitrary bytes, the underlying hardware will often
> fetch chunks of bytes in parallel. If a number spanned the boundaries of
> such a chunk it would require two fetch cycles instead of one. So
> this is avoided for performance reasons.
>
> So, packing "HB" puts a short at offset 0 (even) and then a byte.
> Conversely, packing "BH" puts a byte at offset zero but puts the short
> at offset 2 (to be even), leaving a gap after the byte to achieve this,
> thus the 4 byte size of the result (byte, gap, short).
>
> This layout procedure is called "alignment".
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Cameron Simpson <> DoD#743
> http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/


Thanks for taking the time to type a detailed, helpful response,
Cameron. Much appreciated!