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In computer programming, a bitwise operation operates on a bit string, a bit array or a binary numeral (considered as a bit string) at the level of its individual bits.It is a fast and simple action, basic to the higher-level arithmetic operations and directly supported by the processor.
In the C programming language, operations can be performed on a bit level using bitwise operators. Bitwise operations are contrasted by byte-level operations which characterize the bitwise operators' logical counterparts, the AND, OR, NOT operators. Instead of performing on individual bits, byte-level operators perform on strings of eight bits ...
The precedence of the bitwise logical operators has been criticized. [16] Conceptually, & and | are arithmetic operators like * and +. The expression a & b == 7 is syntactically parsed as a & (b == 7) whereas the expression a + b == 7 is parsed as (a + b) == 7. This requires parentheses to be used more often than they otherwise would.
and | are bitwise operators that occur in many programming languages. The major difference is that bitwise operations operate on the individual bits of a binary numeral, whereas conditional operators operate on logical operations. Additionally, expressions before and after a bitwise operator are always evaluated.
Logical conjunction is often used for bitwise operations, where 0 corresponds to false and 1 to true: 0 AND 0 = 0, 0 AND 1 = 0, 1 AND 0 = 0, 1 AND 1 = 1. The operation can also be applied to two binary words viewed as bitstrings of equal length, by taking the bitwise AND of each pair of bits at corresponding positions. For example:
A mask is data that is used for bitwise operations, particularly in a bit field. Using a mask, multiple bits in a Byte, nibble, word (etc.) can be set either on, off or inverted from on to off (or vice versa) in a single bitwise operation. More comprehensive applications of masking, when applied conditionally to operations, are termed predication.
For example, the operator == binds more tightly than (is executed prior to) the operators & (bitwise AND) and | (bitwise OR) in expressions such as x & 1 == 0, which must be written as (x & 1) == 0 if that is the coder's intent.
C allows using bitwise operators to perform Boolean operations. Care must be taken because the semantics are different when operands make use of more than one bit to represent a value. Pascal has another more abstract, high-level method of dealing with bitwise data, sets. Sets allow the programmer to set, clear, intersect, and unite bitwise ...