Bitwise Operations Guide: AND, OR, XOR, Shifts for Developers
Learn bitwise AND, OR, XOR, NOT, and bit shifts. Practical examples for flags, masks, permissions, and performance tricks in low-level code.
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Tags: developer-tools, number-systems, bitwise
Bitwise Operations Guide: AND, OR, XOR, Shifts for Developers Bitwise operations manipulate individual bits in an integer. They're fast (single CPU instruction), compact, and show up constantly in systems programming, embedded development, network protocol parsing, and performance-critical code. If you write C, Go, Rust, Python, or even JavaScript, you'll encounter them. This guide covers every major bitwise operator with practical examples you can use immediately. AND ( & ) AND returns 1 only where both operands have a 1 bit. Primary use: masking — extract specific bits Clear a bit — AND with a mask where that bit is 0: --- OR ( | ) OR returns 1 where either operand has a 1 bit. Primary use: setting bits / combining flags Ensure specific bits are always 1: --- XOR ( ^ ) XOR returns 1…
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