The bitwise operators operate on the bits in integer values.
There are six bitwise operators, as shown in the following table.
| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
| & | Bitwise AND operator |
| | | Bitwise OR operator |
| ^ | Bitwise Exclusive OR (XOR) operator |
| ~ | Bitwise NOT operator, also called the 1's complement operator |
| >> | Bitwise shift right operator |
| << | Bitwise shift left operator |
All of Bitwise Operators only operate on integer types.
The ~ operator is a unary operator-it applies to one operand-and the others are binary operators.
The bitwise AND operator, &, combines the corresponding bits of its operands in such a way that if both bits are 1, the resulting bit is 1; otherwise, the resulting bit is 0.
Suppose you declare the following variables:
int x = 13; int y = 6; int z = x & y; // AND corresponding bits of x and y
z will have the value 4 (binary 100). This is because the corresponding bits in x and y are combined as follows:
x 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 y 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 x & y 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
The bitwise OR operator, |, results in 1 if either or both of the corresponding bits are 1; otherwise, the result is 0.
If you combine the same values of x and y using the | operator in a statement such as this:
int z = x | y; // OR the bits of x and y
the result would be as follows:
x 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 y 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 x | y 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1
The value stored in z would therefore be 15 (binary 1111).
The bitwise XOR operator, ^, produces a 1 if both bits are different, and 0 if they're the same.
int z = x ^ y; // Exclusive OR the bits of x and y
This results in z containing the value 11 (binary 1011), because the bits combine as follows:
x 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 y 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 x ^ y 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1
The unary operator, ~, flips the bits of its operand, so 1 becomes 0, and 0 becomes 1.
You can apply this operator to x with the value 13:
int z = ~x; // Store 1's complement of x
After executing this statement, z will have the value 14. The bits are set as follows:
x 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 ~x 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0