Bitwise Operators in C Programming

In a C programming language Bitwise operator works on bits and perform bit-by-bit operation. There are following bitwise operators in C:-

Operator	Description	Example
&	Binary AND Operator	a & b
\|	Binary OR Operator	a\| b
^	Binary XOR Operator	a^b
~	Binary One’s Complement Operator is unary	~a
<<	Binary Left Shift Operator	a<<b
>>	Binary Right Shift Operator	a>>b

The truth tables for &, |, and ^ is as follows –

a	b	a & b	a \| b	a ^ b
0	0	0	0	0
0	1	0	1	1
1	1	1	1	0
1	0	0	1	1

Assume A = 60 and B = 13 in binary format, they will be as follows −

A in binary = 0011 1100 (60)

B in binary = 0000 1101 (13)

Bitwise AND (&)

A = 0011 1100 (60)

& B = 0000 1101 (13)

———————————————————

0000 1100 (12)

Bitwise OR (|)

A = 0011 1100 (60)

| B = 0000 1101 (13)

———————————————————

0011 1101 (61)

Bitwise XOR (|)

A = 0011 1100 (60)

^ B = 0000 1101 (13)

———————————————————

0011 0001 (49)

Binary Left Shift Operator

Left shift operator shift all the bits in a left direction to specified number of times.

i=16 //0001 0000

i = i &lt;&lt;2;          // 0100 0000  (shift left 2 bits, front 2 bits will be lost and appended 2 zero

1	i = i <<2; // 0100 0000 (shift left 2 bits, front 2 bits will be lost and appended 2 zero

Example:

#include<stdio.h>
int main() {
 int i = 16;		// 0001 0000
i = i>>2;  		// 0000 0100  (shift right 2 bits, last 2 bits will be lost, and 2 zero add in front) 
printf("i = %d", i);


  return 0;
}

#include<stdio.h>

int main() {

int i = 16; // 0001 0000

i = i>>2; // 0000 0100 (shift right 2 bits, last 2 bits will be lost, and 2 zero add in front)

printf("i = %d", i);

return 0;

}

i=64

i=64

Binary Right Shift Operator

Left shift operator shift all the bits in a left direction to specified number of times.

int i = 16; // 0001 0000

i = i>>2; // 0000 0100 (shift right 2 bits, last 2 bits will be lost, and 2 zero add in front)

Example

#include<stdio.h>
int main() {
 int i = 16;		// 0001 0000
i = i>>2;  		// 0000 0100  (shift right 2 bits, last 2 bits will be lost, and 2 zero add in front) 
printf("i = %d", i);


  return 0;
}

#include<stdio.h>

int main() {

int i = 16; // 0001 0000

i = i>>2; // 0000 0100 (shift right 2 bits, last 2 bits will be lost, and 2 zero add in front)

printf("i = %d", i);

return 0;

}

Output

i=4

i=4

Exapmle: Write a program to demonstrate Bitwise operator.

#include <stdio.h> 
int main() {
  int a = 60;
  int b = 13;
  int c, d, e, f, g, h;
  c = ~a; //c = -61		
  d = a | b; //d= 61		
  e = a & b; // e= 12
  f = a ^ b; //f=  49
  printf("\n value of c = %d", c);
  printf("\n value of d = %d", d);
  printf("\n value of e = %d", e);
  printf("\n value of f = %d", f);
  g = h = 16;
  g = g << 2; //g= 64
  h = h >> 2; // h=4;
  printf("\n value of g = %d", g);
  printf("\n value of h = %d", h);
}

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {

int a = 60;

int b = 13;

int c, d, e, f, g, h;

c = ~a; //c = -61

d = a | b; //d= 61

e = a & b; // e= 12

f = a ^ b; //f= 49

printf("\n value of c = %d", c);

printf("\n value of d = %d", d);

printf("\n value of e = %d", e);

printf("\n value of f = %d", f);

g = h = 16;

g = g << 2; //g= 64

h = h >> 2; // h=4;

printf("\n value of g = %d", g);

printf("\n value of h = %d", h);

}

OUTPUT

 value of c = -61
 value of d = 61
 value of e = 12
 value of f = 49
 value of g = 64
 value of h = 4

value of c = -61

value of d = 61

value of e = 12

value of f = 49

value of g = 64

value of h = 4