C language supports the following bit-wise operators.
| – Bitwise OR
& – Bitwise AND
~ – One’s complement
^ – Bitwise XOR
<< – left shift
>> – right shift
The | (OR) operator compares two values, and returns a value that has its bits set if one or the other values, or both, have their corresponding bits set. The bits are compared using the following table
1 | 1 == 1
1 | 0 == 1
0 | 1 == 1
0 | 0 == 0
The & (AND) operator compares two values, and returns a value that has its bits set if, and only if, the two values being compared both have their corresponding bits set. The bits are compared using the following table
1 & 1 == 1
1 & 0 == 0
0 & 1 == 0
0 & 0 == 0
The ~ (Ones Complement or inversion) operator acts only on one value and it inverts it, turning all the ones int zeros, and all the zeros into ones.
The ^ (XOR) operator compares two values, and returns a value that has its bits set if one or the other value has its corresponding bits set, but not both. The bits are compared using the following table
1 ^ 1 == 0
1 ^ 0 == 1
0 ^ 1 == 1
0 ^ 0 == 0
The >> (Right shift) and << (left shift) operators move the bits the number of bit positions specified. The >> operator shifts the bits from the high bit to the low bit. The << operator shifts the bits from the low bit to the high bit.
Example
#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
unsigned int a = 60; /* 60 = 0011 1100 */
unsigned int b = 13; /* 13 = 0000 1101 */
int c;
c = a & b; /* 12 = 0000 1100 */
printf("Line 1 - Value of c is %d\n", c );
c = a | b; /* 61 = 0011 1101 */
printf("Line 2 - Value of c is %d\n", c );
c = a ^ b; /* 49 = 0011 0001 */
printf("Line 3 - Value of c is %d\n", c );
c = ~a; /*-61 = 1100 0011 */
printf("Line 4 - Value of c is %d\n", c );
c = a << 2; /* 240 = 1111 0000 */
printf("Line 5 - Value of c is %d\n", c );
c = a >> 2; /* 15 = 0000 1111 */
printf("Line 6 - Value of c is %d\n", c );
}
