The technical term for this is "endianness".

Ok, seems I made an embarassing mistake in understanding what little endian means

So in a little endian system, val = 0xAABBCCDD is stored in memory as:
0 1 2   4
DD CC BB AA

That would explain why vec[0] == 0xDD, etc. Thanks!

The technical term for this is "endianness".

Ok, seems I made an embarassing mistake in understanding what little endian means

S in a little endian system, val = 0xAABBCCDD is stored in memory as:
0    1     2   4
DD CC BB AA

That would explain why vec[0] == 0xDD, etc. Thanks!