Bitwise Operators

Bitwise Operators

The bitwise operators are the operators used to perform the operations on the data at the bit-level. In the arithmetic-logic unit, mathematical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are done in bit-level.

Operator	Meaning of operator
&	Bitwise AND operator
\|	Bitwise OR operator
^	Bitwise exclusive OR operator
~	One's complement operator (unary operator)
<<	Left shift operator
>>	Right shift operator

#include <stdio.h>

int main()

{

int a = 12, b = 25;

printf("Output = %d", a & b);

return 0;

}

12 = 00001100 (In Binary)

25 = 00011001 (In Binary)

Bit Operation of 12 and 25

00001100

& 00011001

  ________

  00001000  = 8 (In decimal)

1. The << (left shift) left shifts the bits of the first operand, the second operand decides the number of places to shift.

Example1

Left shift operator shifts all bits towards left by a certain number of specified bits. The bit positions that have been vacated by the left shift operator are filled with 0. The symbol of the left shift operator is <<.

212 = 11010100 (In binary)

212<<1 = 110101000 (In binary) [Left shift by one bit]

212<<0 = 11010100 (Shift by 0)

212<<4 = 110101000000 (In binary) =3392(In decimal)

Example 2

A=60

Binary Left Shift Operator. The left operands value is moved left by the number of bits specified by the right operand.

A << 2 = 240 i.e., 1111 0000

Right Shift Operator

2. The >> (right shift) in right shifts the bits of the first operand, the second operand decides the number of places to shift.

Example1

212 = 11010100 (In binary)

212 >> 2 = 00110101 (In binary) [Right shift by two bits]

212 >> 7 = 00000001 (In binary)

212 >> 8 = 00000000

212 >> 0 = 11010100 (No Shift)

Right shift operator shifts all bits towards right by certain number of specified bits. It is denoted by >>.

Example2

A=60

Binary Right Shift Operator. The left operands value is moved right by the number of bits specified by the right operand.

A >> 2 = 15 i.e., 0000 1111

3. The ~ (bitwise NOT) in C takes one number and inverts all bits of it.

Bitwise complement operator is a unary operator (works on only one operand). It changes 1 to 0 and 0 to 1. It is denoted by ~.

35 = 00100011 (In Binary)

Bitwise complement Operation of 35

~ 00100011

  ________

  11011100  = 220 (In decimal)

Example

#include <stdio.h>

 main()

    unsigned int a = 60;  /* 60 = 0011 1100 */

   unsigned int b = 13;  /* 13 = 0000 1101 */

   int c = 0;

    c = a & b;       /* 12 = 0000 1100 */

   printf("Line 1 - Value of c is %d\n", c );

    c = a | b;       /* 61 = 0011 1101 */

   printf("Line 2 - Value of c is %d\n", c );

          c = a ^ b;

   /* 49 = 0011 0001 */

   printf("Line 3 - Value of c is %d\n", c );

    c = ~a;          /*-61 = 1100 0011 */

   printf("Line 4 - Value of c is %d\n", c );

    c = a << 2;     /* 240 = 1111 0000 */

   printf("Line 5 - Value of c is %d\n", c );

    c = a >> 2;     /* 15 = 0000 1111 */

   printf("Line 6 - Value of c is %d\n", c );

Output-:

Line 1 - Value of c is 12

Line 2 - Value of c is 61

Line 3 - Value of c is 49

Line 4 - Value of c is -61

Line 5 - Value of c is 240

Line 6 - Value of c is 15

Application of Bitwise Operator

A bitwise operator works with the binary representation of a number rather than that number's value.

· Encryption,

· Compression,

· Graphics,

· Communications over ports/sockets

· Embedded systems programming

· Finite state machine.

Milan Tomic

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