Bitwise Operations (bitwise AND, OR, XOR, Left Shift, Right Shift) in C Programming Language

C Programming Language Bitwise Operations Tutorial

Bitwise operations are essential in low-level programming, as they allow you to manipulate individual bits in a number. This tutorial will guide you through the bitwise operations in the C programming language.

Bitwise AND Operator (&)

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

Syntax: result = a & b;

Example:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int a = 12;    // binary: 1100
    int b = 25;    // binary: 11001
    int result;

    result = a & b;
    printf("a & b = %d\n", result);  // Output: 8 (binary: 1000)
    return 0;
}

Bitwise OR Operator (|)

The bitwise OR operator compares each bit of the first operand with the corresponding bit of the second operand. If either bit is 1, the corresponding result bit is set to 1; otherwise, the result bit is set to 0.

Syntax: result = a | b;

Example:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int a = 12;    // binary: 1100
    int b = 25;    // binary: 11001
    int result;

    result = a | b;
    printf("a | b = %d\n", result);  // Output: 29 (binary: 11101)
    return 0;
}

Bitwise XOR Operator (^)

The bitwise XOR operator compares each bit of the first operand with the corresponding bit of the second operand. If the bits are different, the corresponding result bit is set to 1; otherwise, the result bit is set to 0.

Syntax: result = a ^ b;

Example:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int a = 12;    // binary: 1100
    int b = 25;    // binary: 11001
    int result;

    result = a ^ b;
    printf("a ^ b = %d\n", result);  // Output: 21 (binary: 10101)
    return 0;
}

Bitwise NOT Operator (~)

The bitwise NOT operator inverts all the bits of the operand. If the bit is 1, it becomes 0, and if it's 0, it becomes 1.

Syntax: result = ~a;

Example:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int a = 12;    // binary: 1100
    int result;

    result = ~a;
    printf("~a = %d\n", result);  // Output: -13 (binary: 11111111111111111111111111110011)
    return 0;
}

Bitwise Left Shift Operator (<<)

The bitwise left shift operator shifts the bits of the first operand to the left by the number of positions specified by the second operand. The vacant bit positions are filled with zeros.

Syntax: result = a << n;

Example:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    int a = 12;    // binary: 1100
    int n = 2;
    int result;

    result = a << n;
    printf("a << n = %d\n", result);  // Output: 48 
	return 0;
}

C program examples for bitwise AND operation:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    unsigned int a = 12;  // Binary: 1100
    unsigned int b = 25;  // Binary: 11001

    unsigned int result = a & b;  // Bitwise AND
    printf("Result of bitwise AND: %u\n", result);

    return 0;
}

Demonstrates the bitwise AND operation in a C program.

Bitwise OR and XOR in C language:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    unsigned int a = 12;  // Binary: 1100
    unsigned int b = 25;  // Binary: 11001

    unsigned int resultOR = a | b;  // Bitwise OR
    unsigned int resultXOR = a ^ b; // Bitwise XOR

    printf("Result of bitwise OR: %u\n", resultOR);
    printf("Result of bitwise XOR: %u\n", resultXOR);

    return 0;
}

Illustrates bitwise OR and XOR operations in C.

Using bitwise left shift in C:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    unsigned int num = 5;  // Binary: 0101

    unsigned int result = num << 2;  // Bitwise left shift by 2
    printf("Result of bitwise left shift: %u\n", result);

    return 0;
}

Shows the use of bitwise left shift operation in C.

Right shift operation in C programming:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    unsigned int num = 20;  // Binary: 10100

    unsigned int result = num >> 2;  // Bitwise right shift by 2
    printf("Result of bitwise right shift: %u\n", result);

    return 0;
}

Demonstrates the bitwise right shift operation in C.