Bitwise Operators
The bitwise operators perform Boolean algebra. Each of these operators performs their operations on each bit of the operands. For instance, if we have two four-bit binary values, the operation will be carried out between bit 0 of each value, then between bit 1 of each value and so on. In other words, these operators do a bunch of single-bit operations in parallel.
| Operator | Operation | Example | Result (for each bit position) |
|---|---|---|---|
| & | Bitwise AND | x & y | 1, if 1 in both x and y 0, if 0 in x or y or both |
| | | Bitwise OR | x | y | 1, if 1 in x or y or both 0, if 0 in both x and y |
| ^ | Bitwise XOR | x ^ y | 1, if 1 in x or y but not both 0, if 0 or 1 in both x and y |
| ~ | Bitwise NOT (One's Complement) |
~x | 1, if 0 in x 0, if 1 in x |