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Advanced Programming Techniques in C

The Utility of the OR Bitwise Operator

Explore how to manipulate bits in C by using the OR bitwise operator to switch on specific bits. Understand how to create masks and apply the operator without affecting other bits, improving your control over bit-level data manipulation.

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Switch a bit on using OR

The OR bitwise operator is used to turn on the bit. See the code given below!

C
#include <stdio.h> 
# define BV(x) ( 1 << x) 
int main( ) 
{
  // Declare variables
	unsigned char n ; 
	unsigned int val ;
	n = 150;
  // Check whether the 3rd bit is on or off
	if ( ( n & BV(3) ) == BV(3) ) 
		printf( "3rd bit is on\n" ) ; 
	else
	{
		printf ( "3rd bit is off\n" ) ;
    // Put on 3rd bit
		n = n | BV(3) ; 
		printf ( "%d\n", n ) ; 
	}
}

To turn on the bit, first, we have to select the appropriate mask value based on the value that should be turned on. If you want to turn on the 3rd3^{rd} ...