The symbols << and >> are defined as left and right shift operators respectively in Python. They are bitwise operators. First operand is a bitwise representation of numeric object and second is the number of positions by which bit formation is desired to be shifted to left or right.
The << operator shifts bit pattern to left. The least significant bits on right are set to 0
>>> a=60 >>> bin(a) '0b111100' >>> b=a<<2 >>> b 240 >>> bin(b) '0b11110000'
You can see two bits on right set to 0
On the other hand >> operator shifts pattern to right. Most significant bits are set to 0
>>> a=60 >>> bin(a) '0b111100' >>> b=a>>2 >>> b 15 >>> bin(a) '0b111100'