Bitwise Operators in C

The following table lists the Bitwise operators supported by C. Assume variable 'A' holds 60 and variable 'B' holds 13, then −

Operator	Description	Example
&	Binary AND Operator copies a bit to the result if it exists in both operands.	(A & B) = 12, i.e., 0000 1100
|	Binary OR Operator copies a bit if it exists in either operand.	(A | B) = 61, i.e., 0011 1101
^	Binary XOR Operator copies the bit if it is set in one operand but not both.	(A ^ B) = 49, i.e., 0011 0001
~	Binary One's Complement Operator is unary and has the effect of 'flipping' bits.	(~A ) = ~(60), i.e,. 1100 0011
<<	Binary Left Shift Operator. The left operands value is moved left by the number of bits specified by the right operand.	A << 2 = 240 i.e., 1111 0000
>>	Binary Right Shift Operator. The left operands value is moved right by the number of bits specified by the right operand.	A >> 2 = 15 i.e., 0000 1111

Example

Try the following example to understand all the bitwise operators available in C −

#include <stdio.h>

main() {

   unsigned int a = 60; /* 60 = 0011 1100 */  
   unsigned int b = 13; /* 13 = 0000 1101 */
   int c = 0;           

   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 );
}

When you compile and execute the above program, it produces the following result −

Line 1 - Value of c is 12
Line 2 - Value of c is 61
Line 3 - Value of c is 49
Line 4 - Value of c is -61
Line 5 - Value of c is 240
Line 6 - Value of c is 15