The htons() function in Python

Overview:

The function htons() converts a two-byte integer from host byte order to network byte order and returns the converted integer.
The htonl() function provides the similar functionality and it works on a four-byte integer.

Example:

# Example Python program that converts a 16-bit intger
# from host byte order to network byte order
import socket
import sys

print("Byte order of the host:%s"%sys.byteorder)

# 16-bit integer to be converted
num = 65534
print(num)

# Convert the integer from host byte order
# to network byte order
nw = socket.htons(num)
print(nw)

# Print the 16-bit integer in host byte order
bytes_hostOrder = num.to_bytes(2, byteorder = 'little')
print("Given 16-bit integer in little endian format:%s"%bytes_hostOrder)

# Print the bytes of the 16-bit integer whose byte order is changed to
# big endian(the converted integer itself is stored in little endian...as the
# platform is little endian)
bytes_nwOrder = nw.to_bytes(2, byteorder = 'little')
print("Given 16-bit integer in big endian format:%s"%bytes_nwOrder)

Output:

Byte order of the host:little

65534

65279

Given 16-bit integer in little endian format:b'\xfe\xff'

Given 16-bit integer in big endian format:b'\xff\xfe'