Operators

Bitwise Operators

Bitwise operators work directly on the individual bits of integers. They are rarely used in typical Python programming but are essential for low-level programming, working with hardware, or specific optimization scenarios.

Types of Bitwise Operators:

• & (AND): Returns 1 if both bits are 1, otherwise 0.
• | (OR): Returns 1 if at least one bit is 1, otherwise 0.
• ^ (XOR): Returns 1 if the bits are different, otherwise 0.
• ~ (NOT): Inverts all bits (0 becomes 1, 1 becomes 0).
• << (Left Shift): Shifts bits to the left by a specified number of positions, filling with 0s on the right.
• >> (Right Shift): Shifts bits to the right by a specified number of positions. The behavior of the leftmost bit depends on the signedness of the integer (generally filled with the sign bit in two’s complement).

Examples:

a = 10  # Binary: 1010
b = 4   # Binary: 0100

print(a & b)  # Output: 0 (Binary: 0000)
print(a | b)  # Output: 14 (Binary: 1110)
print(a ^ b)  # Output: 14 (Binary: 1110)
print(~a)   # Output: -11 (depends on system's representation of negative numbers)
print(a << 2) # Output: 40 (Binary: 101000)
print(a >> 1) # Output: 5  (Binary: 0101)

Twos Complement (This needs a separate explanation)

Binary Representation of Numbers (This also needs a separate explanation)

Use Cases:

• Flags and bit fields: Representing multiple boolean states within a single integer.
• Low-level programming: Interfacing with hardware or embedded systems.
• Cryptography: Certain cryptographic algorithms utilize bitwise operations.
• Data compression/manipulation: Efficiently packing and unpacking data.

Important Note: Bitwise operators only work on integers. Applying them to other data types will result in a TypeError.