diff --git a/datraw/datraw/endianness.h b/datraw/datraw/endianness.h
index fd894fd..b9dfe0f 100644
--- a/datraw/datraw/endianness.h
+++ b/datraw/datraw/endianness.h
@@ -1,28 +1,35 @@
 // <copyright file="endianness.h" company="Visualisierungsinstitut der Universität Stuttgart">
-// Copyright © 2017 Visualisierungsinstitut der Universität Stuttgart. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
+// Copyright © 2017 - 2023 Visualisierungsinstitut der Universität Stuttgart. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
 // </copyright>
 // <author>Christoph Müller</author>
 
 #pragma once
 
+#include <cinttypes>
+
 
 namespace datraw {
 
     /// <summary>
     /// Represents endianness of a data set or system.
     /// </summary>
-    enum class endianness {
+    enum class endianness : std::uint32_t {
 
         /// <summary>
         /// The least significant byte is stored first, like on Intel x86 or
         /// AMD64 architectures.
         /// </summary>
-        little = 1,
+        little = 0x03020100,
 
         /// <summary>
         /// The most significant byte is stored first, like on Sun Spark.
         /// </summary>
-        big
+        big = 0x00010203,
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// The native endian of the system the code is running on.
+        /// </summary>
+        system = '\0\1\2\3'
     };
 
 }
diff --git a/datraw/datraw/info.h b/datraw/datraw/info.h
index f8b9423..671df59 100644
--- a/datraw/datraw/info.h
+++ b/datraw/datraw/info.h
@@ -704,7 +704,13 @@ namespace datraw {
         /// <summary>
         /// Answer the endianness of the system we are running on.
         /// </summary>
-        static datraw::endianness sys_endianness(void);
+        /// <remarks>
+        /// This method is provided for backwards compatibility. New code should
+        /// use <see cref="datraw::endianness::system" />.
+        /// </remarks>
+        static constexpr datraw::endianness sys_endianness(void) noexcept {
+            return endianness::system;
+        }
 
         /// <summmary>
         /// Split a range of characters at positions designated by
diff --git a/datraw/datraw/info.inl b/datraw/datraw/info.inl
index f479a78..f81572a 100644
--- a/datraw/datraw/info.inl
+++ b/datraw/datraw/info.inl
@@ -832,25 +832,6 @@ template<class I> I datraw::info<C>::skip_spaces(I it, I end) {
 }
 
 
-/*
- * datraw::info<C>::sys_endianness
- */
-template<class C>
-datraw::endianness datraw::info<C>::sys_endianness(void) {
-    static const union {
-        std::uint32_t u;
-        std::uint8_t b[4];
-    } BYTES = { 0x01020304 };
-    
-    switch (BYTES.b[0]) {
-        case 0x01: return endianness::big;
-        case 0x04: return endianness::little;
-        default: throw std::runtime_error("Unknown endianness. This should "
-            "never happen!");
-    }
-}
-
-
 /*
  * datraw::info<C>::tokenise
  */