dejagianelli / bitwise-operators

Bitwise Operators with examples in C

Introduction to Bitwise Operators

As name suggests, it does bitwise manipulation

1. & = AND
2. | = OR
3. ~ = NOT
4. << = Left Shift

5. = Right Shift

6. ^ = XOR

Bitwise AND (&) Operator

Result of AND is 1 when both bits are 1

7 & 4 = 4 0111 & 0100 = 0100

Truth Table

A	B	A&B
0	0	0
0	1	0
1	0	0
1	1	1

Bitwise OR (|) Operator

Result of OR is 0 when both bits are 0

7 & 4 = 4 0111 | 0100 = 0111

Truth Table

A	B	A&B
0	0	0
0	1	1
1	0	1
1	1	1

Bitwise NOT (~) Operator

Result of NOT is 0 when bit is 1 and 1 when bit is 0

~7 = 8 ~0111 = 1000

Truth Table

A	~A
0	1
1	0

Left Shift (<<) Operator

First operand << Second operand

First Operand: Whose bits get left shifted Second Operand: Decides the number of places to shift the bits

Trailing positions are filled with zeros

3 = 00000011 3<<1 = 00000110 = 6

Each left shift multiplies the original number by 2

Right Shift (>>) Operator

First operand << Second operand

First Operand: Whose bits get right shifted Second Operand: Decides the number of places to shift the bits

Leading positions are filled with zeros

3 = 00000011 3>>1 = 00000001 = 1

Each right shift divides the original number by 2

XOR (>>) Operator

Truth Table

Either A is 1 or B is 1 then the output is 1 but when both A and B are 1, then output is 0.

A	B	A XOR B
0	0	0
0	1	1
1	0	1
1	1	0