C++ Bitwise Operators

C++ provides a set of bitwise operators, which allow you to manipulate the individual bits within an operand. These operators are often used for low-level programming or for optimization purposes. In this article, we'll go over the bitwise operators available in C++, along with examples to illustrate how they work.

Operator	Name	Description	Example
&	AND	Performs bitwise AND operation between two operands	(A & B) returns 12, which is 0000 1100
|	OR	Performs bitwise OR operation between two operands	(A | B) returns 61, which is 0011 1101
^	XOR	Performs bitwise XOR operation between two operands	(A ^ B) returns 49, which is 0011 0001
~	NOT	Performs bitwise NOT operation on the operand	(~A ) returns -61, which is 1100 0011 in 2's complement form
<<	Left Shift	Shifts bits of the operand to the left by specified number of bits	(A << 2) returns 240, which is 1111 0000
>>	Right Shift	Shifts bits of the operand to the right by specified number of bits	(A >> 2) returns 15, which is 0000 1111

Here are some examples to illustrate how the bitwise operators can be used in C++ code.

1#include <iostream>
2
3int main() {
4    int x = 7, y = 4;
5    
6    std::cout << (x & y) << std::endl;  // Output: 4
7    std::cout << (x | y) << std::endl;  // Output: 7
8    std::cout << (x ^ y) << std::endl;  // Output: 3
9    std::cout << (~x) << std::endl;     // Output: -8
10    std::cout << (x << 2) << std::endl; // Output: 28
11    std::cout << (x >> 2) << std::endl; // Output: 1
12    
13    return 0;
14}

In these examples, we perform various bitwise operations on the values 7 and 4. You can see how the results of the operations match the descriptions in the table.