Chapter 02-1 – Bitwise Operators

in C programming
Bit-level operations
In processor, mathematical operations like:
addition, subtraction, addition and division
are done in bit-level to process faster and
save power. To perform bit-level operations
in C programming, bitwise operators are
used. 

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Bitwise operators

Operators Meaning of operators

& Bitwise AND
| Bitwise OR
^ Bitwise exclusive OR
~ Bitwise complement
<< Shift left
>> Shift right

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Bitwise AND operator &
The output of bitwise AND is 1 if the corresponding bits of
all operands is 1. If either bit of an operand is 0, the
result of corresponding bit is evaluated to 0.

Let us suppose the bitwise AND operation of two integers 12

and 25.

12 = 00001100 (In Binary)

25 = 00011001 (In Binary)
Bit Operation of 12 and 25
00001100
& 00011001
00001000 = 8 (In decima
l)

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Example #1: Bitwise AND
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int a = 12, b = 25;
printf(“Output = %d”, a&b);
return 0;
}

Output

Output = 8

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Bitwise OR operator |
The output of bitwise OR is 1 if at least one corresponding bit of two
operands is 1. In C Programming, bitwise OR operator is denoted by
|.

12 = 00001100 (In Binary)

25 = 00011001 (In Binary)

Bitwise OR Operation of 12 and 25

00001100
| 00011001
00011101 = 29 (In decimal)

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Example #2: Bitwise OR
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int a = 12, b = 25;
printf(“Output = %d”, a|b);
return 0;
}

Output
Output = 29

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Bitwise XOR (exclusive OR)
operator ^
The result of bitwise XOR operator is 1 if the corresponding
bits of two operands are opposite. It is denoted by ^.

12 = 00001100 (In Binary)

25 = 00011001 (In Binary)
Bitwise XOR Operation of 12 and 25

00001100
^ 00011001
00010101 = 21 (In decimal)

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Example #3: Bitwise XOR
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int a = 12, b = 25;
printf(“Output = %d”, a^b);
return 0;
}

Output
Output = 21

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 ~ 00100011 ________ 11011100 = 220 (In decimal)

Bitwise complement operator ~

Bitwise compliment operator is an unary operator (works on
one operand only). It changes the 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)

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Shift Operators in C programming
There are two shift operators in C programming:
Right shift operator >>
 Right shift operator shifts all bits towards right by
certain number of specified bits. It is denoted by >>.
Left shift operator <<
 Left shift operator shifts all bits towards left by certain
number of specified bits. It is denoted by <<.

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Right Shift Operator >>

212 = 11010100 (In binary)

212>>2 00110101 (In binary) [Right shift by tw
o bits]
212>>7 00000001 (In binary)
212>>8 00000000
212>>0 11010100 (No Shift)

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Left Shift Operator <<
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)

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Example #4: Shift Operators
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int num = 212, i;
for (i = 0; i <= 2; ++i)
printf(“Right shift by %d: %d\n”, i, num>>i);
printf(“\n”);
for (i=0; i <= 2; ++i)
printf(“Left shift by %d: %d\n”, i, num<<i);
return 0;
}

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Shift operations Outputs
Right Shift by 0: 212
Right Shift by 1: 106
Right Shift by 2: 53

Left Shift by 0: 212

Left Shift by 1: 424
Left Shift by 2: 848

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#include <stdio.h>
void displayBin(int);
int main(void)
{
int num = 212, i;
// Get the Lowest bit:
//result = value & 1;
// Get the Highest bit:
//result = value >> (sizeof(unsigned int) - 1);
// Get the nth bit (LSB is 0):
//result = (value >> n) & 1

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 for (i=0; i <= 3; ++i)
{
printf("Right shift by %d: %d\n", i, num>>=i);
displayBin(num);
}
printf("\n");
num = 212;
for (i=0; i <= 3; ++i)
{
printf("Left shift by %d: %d\n", i, num<<=i);
displayBin(num);
}
return 0;
}
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void displayBin(int num)
{//display the integer in binary format
int i;
for (i=8*sizeof(int)-1; i>=0; i--)
{
if (i/8 <= 1) printf("%d",(num>>i)&1);
}
printf("\n");
return;
}

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End

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