AND and OR Operators in C programming

AND and OR Operators in C

Bitwise operators in C perform operations on the individual bits of integers. The bitwise AND (&) and bitwise OR (|) operators are commonly used for tasks that involve low-level data manipulation, such as setting, clearing, and toggling bits in flags or binary data.

Bitwise AND Operator (&)

The bitwise AND operator (&) compares each bit of its first operand to the corresponding bit of its second operand. The result of the operation is a new value where each bit is set to 1 only if both corresponding bits of the operands are 1; otherwise, it is set to 0.

Syntax

The syntax for using the bitwise AND operator is:

result = operand1 & operand2;

Example

Here’s an example of using the bitwise AND operator:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int a = 12; // Binary: 00001100
    int b = 7;  // Binary: 00000111

    int result = a & b; // Binary: 00000100 (Decimal: 4)

    printf("Result of %d & %d = %d\n", a, b, result);

    return 0;
}

In this example, the bitwise AND of 12 (00001100 in binary) and 7 (00000111 in binary) results in 4 (00000100 in binary).

Bitwise OR Operator (|)

The bitwise OR operator (|) compares each bit of its first operand to the corresponding bit of its second operand. The result of the operation is a new value where each bit is set to 1 if at least one of the corresponding bits of the operands is 1; otherwise, it is set to 0.

Syntax

The syntax for using the bitwise OR operator is:

result = operand1 | operand2;

Example

Here’s an example of using the bitwise OR operator:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int a = 12; // Binary: 00001100
    int b = 7;  // Binary: 00000111

    int result = a | b; // Binary: 00001111 (Decimal: 15)

    printf("Result of %d | %d = %d\n", a, b, result);

    return 0;
}

In this example, the bitwise OR of 12 (00001100 in binary) and 7 (00000111 in binary) results in 15 (00001111 in binary).

Note: Bitwise operators are most commonly used in systems programming, embedded programming, and scenarios where you need to manipulate data at the bit level. Ensure you understand the bitwise representation of your data to use these operators effectively.