The Native Option: Runtime Flexibility

The native specifier tells LFE to use whatever byte order your CPU natively prefers. This is determined at runtime, making your code portable while still being efficient:

lfe> (binary ((12345 (size 32) native)))
#B(0 0 48 57)  ; Result depends on your CPU architecture

On an Intel x86-64 system (little-endian):

#B(57 48 0 0)

On a SPARC or PowerPC system (big-endian):

#B(0 0 48 57)

When to Use Native

Use native when:

• You’re storing binary data that will only be read on the same system
• Performance is critical (native operations avoid byte-swapping overhead)
• You’re working with platform-specific file formats

Don’t use native when:

• Exchanging data over networks
• Writing portable file formats
• Any scenario where the data might cross architectural boundaries