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Bit Manipulation A Level

Bit manipulation involves working with individual bits in binary numbers using operators like AND, OR, XOR, NOT, and shifts. These operations are essential for tasks such as checking odd/even numbers, setting or clearing bits, and performing efficient arithmetic operations. Mastery of bitwise operations is crucial for optimization in various fields of computer science, including cryptography and low-level programming.

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15 views5 pages

Bit Manipulation A Level

Bit manipulation involves working with individual bits in binary numbers using operators like AND, OR, XOR, NOT, and shifts. These operations are essential for tasks such as checking odd/even numbers, setting or clearing bits, and performing efficient arithmetic operations. Mastery of bitwise operations is crucial for optimization in various fields of computer science, including cryptography and low-level programming.

Uploaded by

dzirunijoshua45
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Bit Manipulation – Cambridge AS & A Level Computer Science

Definition:

Bit manipulation refers to the process of directly working with individual bits (0s and 1s) within a
binary number. This is done using bitwise operators such as AND, OR, XOR, NOT, shifts, and
rotations.

Bitwise Operators

1. AND (&)

• Used to clear bits or check if a particular bit is set.

• It returns 1 only if both corresponding bits are 1.

Example:

A = 0b1101 # 13 in decimal

B = 0b1011 # 11 in decimal

Result = A & B # 0b1001 (9 in decimal)

Use Case:

Checking if a number is even:

num = 6 # 110 in binary

if num & 1 == 0:

print("Even number") # This will print since the last bit is 0

⸻
2. OR (|)

• Used to set (turn on) particular bits.

• Returns 1 if at least one corresponding bit is 1.

Example:

A = 0b1101

B = 0b1011

Result = A | B # 0b1111 (15 in decimal)

Use Case:

Turning on a specific bit in a number.

3. XOR (^)

• Used for toggling bits (flipping 0 to 1 and vice versa).

• Returns 1 if the bits are different, otherwise returns 0.

Example:

A = 0b1101

B = 0b1011

Result = A ^ B # 0b0110 (6 in decimal)

Use Case:

Swapping two numbers without a temporary variable:

x=5

y=7

x=x^y
y=x^y

x=x^y

print(x, y) # Output: 7, 5

4. NOT (~)

• Inverts all bits (1 becomes 0, and 0 becomes 1).

Example:

A = 0b00001111 # 15 in decimal

Result = ~A # -16 (due to two's complement representation)

Use Case:

Finding the negative of a number in two’s complement representation.

5. Left Shift (<<)

• Shifts bits to the left, effectively multiplying by 2^n.

Example:

A = 5 # 0b0101

Result = A << 2 # 0b10100 (20 in decimal)

Use Case:

Fast multiplication by powers of two.


⸻

6. Right Shift (>>)

• Shifts bits to the right, effectively dividing by 2^n.

Example:

A = 20 # 0b10100

Result = A >> 2 # 0b000101 (5 in decimal)

Use Case:

Efficient integer division by powers of two.

Practical Applications

1. Checking Odd/Even Numbers

num = 7

if num & 1:

print("Odd")

else:

print("Even")

2. Setting and Clearing Bits

num = 0b1010 # 10

num |= (1 << 2) # Set bit at position 2 (0b1110)

num &= ~(1 << 1) # Clear bit at position 1 (0b1100)


3. Bitmasking for Permissions (File Systems, Security)

READ = 0b001

WRITE = 0b010

EXECUTE = 0b100

user_permissions = READ | EXECUTE # 0b101 (5 in decimal)

4. Efficient Multiplication and Division by 2

num = 8

print(num << 1) # 16 (Multiplication)

print(num >> 1) # 4 (Division)

Conclusion

Bit manipulation is a fundamental concept in computer science used for efficient computation. It is
widely applied in optimization, cryptography, graphics, and low-level programming. Understanding
bitwise operations helps in designing efficient algorithms and solving problems at the hardware
level.

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