Bitwise Operators
Bitwise operators
Name | Symbol | Syntax | Explanation |
Bitwise AND | & |
| Resultant bit is 1 if both bits are 1 |
Bitwise OR | | |
| Resultant bit is 1 if either one of the two bits is 1 |
Bitwise XOR | ^ |
| Resultant bit is 1 if both bits have different values |
Bitwise NOT | ~ |
| Resultant bit is simply the inverted bit |
Left shift | << |
| Remove the most significant (left) bit and add 0 from the right a specified number of times |
Right shift | >> |
| Remove the least significant (right) bit and add 0 from the left a specified number of times |
For demonstration purposes, let’s take two binary numbers, 10001101 and 11110101. Applying the bitwise operators would give the following results:
Bitwise AND operator
Taking the bitwise AND of these binary numbers would result in 10000101. For example, both of the first bits of the binary numbers are 1, and therefore the AND of these bits is also 1. The next bits are 0 and 1 respectively, the AND of which is 0, and so on.
Expression: 0b100011011 & 0b11110101
Bitwise OR operator
Performing a bitwise OR results in 11111101. For example, the first bits are both 1, so the OR of these bits is 1. The next bits are 1 and 0, also resulting in 1, and so on.
Expression: 0b100011011 | 0b11110101
Bitwise XOR operator
The XOR operation on binary_num_one results in 1111000. For instance, the first bits are both equal to 1, so the result is 0. The next bits are the different (i.e., 1 and 0), resulting in 1, and so on.
Expression: 0b100011011 ^ 0b11110101
Bitwise NOT operator
The NOT operation flips each bit in binary_num_one and results in 10001110. For example in binary_num_1, the first bit is 1, so the NOT is 0. The next bit is 0, so the NOT is 1, and so on.
Expression: ~ 0b100011011
Bitwise left shifting operator
Left shifting binary_num_one results in 100011010. This operation effectively multiplies the number by 2 for each shift left. For instance, shifting left by 1 position removes the leftmost bit 1 and adds 0 to the right.
Expression: 0b100011011 << 1
Bitwise right shifting operator
Right shifting binary_num_one results in 1000110. This operation effectively divides the number by 2 for each shift right. For instance, shifting right by 1 position removes the rightmost bit 0 and adds a 0 at the left.
Expression: 0b100011011 >> 1
Code
We can put this effectively into Python code, and you can even change the numbers and experiment with the code yourself! Click the “Run” button to see the output.
binary_num_one = 0b10001101binary_num_two = 0b11110101bitwise_and = binary_num_one & binary_num_twoprint(bin(bitwise_and))bitwise_or = binary_num_one | binary_num_twoprint(bin(bitwise_or))bitwise_xor = binary_num_one ^ binary_num_twoprint(bin(bitwise_xor))bitwise_not = ~binary_num_oneprint(bin(bitwise_not))left_shift = binary_num_one << 1print(bin(left_shift))right_shift = binary_num_one >> 1print(bin(right_shift))