Bitwise Operators

In computing and digital communication, the data is actually made up of 0s and 1s known as bits. Bits are the smallest unit of data.

Bitwise operators allow us to perform bit-related operations on values.

Bitwise operations find use in several real world applications. They are used for various image processing tasks. Many encryption algorithms utilize bitwise operations for scrambling data. Bit flags are a common technique to represent multiple states or options using a single byte instead of multiple variables; bitwise operations are used to set, clear, or check individual flags.

Bit manipulation

Bit manipulation involves directly working with the binary representation of numbers. It allows for efficient and low-level data processing. Bitwise operators in Python only work on integer values. Below are the bitwise operators with a brief explanation:

• Bitwise AND (&):

  • The bitwise AND operator & compares each bit of the first operand to the corresponding bit of the second operand. If both bits are 1, the corresponding result bit is set to 1. Otherwise, the corresponding result bit is set to 0.

  • Example: 5 & 3 (binary 0101 & 0011) results in 0001 (decimal 1).

• Bitwise OR (|):

  • Compares each bit of two numbers. If at least one of the bits is 1, the resulting bit is 1; otherwise, it is 0.

  • Example: 5 | 3 (binary 0101 | 0011) results in 0111 (decimal 7).

• Bitwise XOR (^):

  • Compares each bit of two numbers. If the bits are different, the resulting bit is 1; otherwise, it is 0.

  • Example: 5 ^ 3 (binary 0101 ^ 0011) results in 0110 (decimal 6).

• Bitwise NOT (~):

  • Inverts all the bits of a number, ...