Bitwise operators in C programming

Bitwise Operators in C

Bitwise operators in C are used to perform operations on the binary representations of integers. They operate on the individual bits of data and are essential for low-level programming tasks such as bit manipulation. Here’s an overview of the bitwise operators available in C:

1. Bitwise AND Operator (&&)

The & operator performs a bitwise AND operation between two integers. Each bit in the result is set to 1 if both corresponding bits in the operands are 1.

int a = 12;  // Binary: 00001100
int b = 7;   // Binary: 00000111
int result = a & b;  // Result: 00000100 (4 in decimal)
printf("%d", result);  // Output: 4

2. Bitwise OR Operator (|)

The | operator performs a bitwise OR operation between two integers. Each bit in the result is set to 1 if at least one of the corresponding bits in the operands is 1.

int a = 12;  // Binary: 00001100
int b = 7;   // Binary: 00000111
int result = a | b;  // Result: 00001111 (15 in decimal)
printf("%d", result);  // Output: 15

3. Bitwise XOR Operator (^)

The ^ operator performs a bitwise XOR (exclusive OR) operation between two integers. Each bit in the result is set to 1 if only one of the corresponding bits in the operands is 1.

int a = 12;  // Binary: 00001100
int b = 7;   // Binary: 00000111
int result = a ^ b;  // Result: 00001011 (11 in decimal)
printf("%d", result);  // Output: 11

4. Bitwise NOT Operator (~)

The ~ operator performs a bitwise NOT operation, which inverts all the bits in an integer. The result is the one's complement of the operand.

int a = 12;  // Binary: 00001100
int result = ~a;  // Result: 11110011 (in decimal, -13 in signed representation)
printf("%d", result);  // Output: -13

5. Left Shift Operator (<<)

The << operator shifts the bits of the left operand to the left by the number of positions specified by the right operand. It effectively multiplies the number by 2 for each shift.

int a = 5;  // Binary: 00000101
int result = a << 2;  // Result: 00010100 (20 in decimal)
printf("%d", result);  // Output: 20

6. Right Shift Operator (>>)

The >> operator shifts the bits of the left operand to the right by the number of positions specified by the right operand. It effectively divides the number by 2 for each shift.

int a = 20;  // Binary: 00010100
int result = a >> 2;  // Result: 00000101 (5 in decimal)
printf("%d", result);  // Output: 5

Bitwise Operators Summary

Operator	Description	Example	Result
&	Bitwise AND	a & b	1 if both bits are 1
|	Bitwise OR	a | b	1 if at least one bit is 1
^	Bitwise XOR	a ^ b	1 if only one bit is 1
~	Bitwise NOT	~a	Inverts all bits
<<	Left Shift	a << n	Shifts bits to the left
>>	Right Shift	a >> n	Shifts bits to the right

Note: Bitwise operators are useful for low-level programming tasks, such as bit manipulation and optimization. They allow precise control over individual bits of data.