Bitwise shift operators with example

There are two types of shift operators.  They are
1. Left shift operator (<<)
2. Right shift operator(>>)

Left shift operator:
It is used to shift the bits of the first operand to left by the number of bit places the second operand specifies.

Example: 2 << 4
Binary value of 2 is 00000010
00000010 << 4 is 00100000
Decimal value of 00100000 is 32

Right shift operator:
It is used to shift the bits of the first operand to right by the number of bit places the second operand specifies.

Example: 32 >> 4
Binary value of 32 is 00100000
00100000 >> 4 is 00000010
Decimal value of 00000010 is 2

Example C program on bitwise shift operators

 
  #include <stdio.h>
  int main() {
        int x = 2, y = 4, res;
        res = x << y;  // left shift x by y
        printf("%d << %d is %d\n", x, y, res);
        x = res;
        res = x >> y;  // right shift x by y
        printf("%d >> %d is %d\n", x, y, res);
        return 0;
  }

  Output:

  jp@jp-VirtualBox:~/$ ./a.out
  02 << 4 is 32
  32 >> 4 is 2

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