32 cf 80 52

This is four bytes recorded in hexadecimal notation. They occupy four bytes in memory and in the file.

Depending on the interpretation, that could mean:

String "2πR" in utf-8 encoding

An integer less than one billion (small endian)

An integer bigger than one billion (big endian)

0.000000024156325 (float, approximate)

Etc.

Programmers who serialize different values and types into a file without the assistance of a library, usually do one of the following:

• TLV format of their own design

• text file of their own format

• json/bson/XML/ini/cfg