Numpy tobytes() with defined byteorder

Question

Is it possible to define byte order when converting a numpy array to binary string (with tobytes())?

I would want to force little endianness, but I don't want byte-swapping if it is not necessary.

Answer 1

When interfacing with C code I use this pattern

numpy.ascontiguousarray(x, dtype='>i4')

That dtype string specifies the endianess and precise bit width.

You can check ndarray.flags to see if conversions are necessary.