I'm working with bits and I don't understand this operator.
unsigned int number = 6;
number = (number>>1)&1;
The resulting value in number is 1 and I don't know why.
6 is 0110 in binary.
If I shift 1 position to the right the result is 0011, which is 3.
The value in number now is 1, which is the last bit in 0011. Does the operation return the last digit??
Thanks
First you do a right shift operation. It shifts each bit in its left operand to the right. The number following the operator decides the number of places the bits are shifted.
0110 >> 1 = 0011
Then you perform a bitwise AND operation, which does a logical AND of the bits in each position of a number in its binary form.
0011
& 0001
----
= 0001
So yes, if you perform a bitwise AND operation with 1, the result is going to be the last digit of the left operand.
ANDing 0011 and 0001, the result is 0001. I couldn't understand what you meant to ask.
I am currently working on a programming assignment in which I have to mask only a certain index of the whole 32-bit number(EX: If I take 8 4-bit numbers into my 32-bit integer, I would have 8 indices with 4 bits in each). I want to be able to print only part of the bits out of the whole 32 bits, which can be done with masking. If the bits were to only be in one place, I would not have a problem, for I would just create a mask that puts the 1s in a set place(EX: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000001). However, I need to be able to shift the mask throughout only one index to print each bit (EX: I want to loop through the first index with my 0001 mask, shifting the 1 left every time, but I do not want to continue after the third bit of that index). I know that I need a loop to accomplish this; however, I am having a difficult time wrapping my head around how to complete this part of my assignment. Any tips, suggestions, or corrections would be appreciated. Also, I'm sorry if this was difficult to understand, but I could not find a better way to word it. Thanks.
first of all about representation. You need binary numbers to represent bits and masks. There are no binaries implemented directly in c/c++ languages at least before c++14. So, before c++14 you had to use hexadecimals or octals to represent your binaries, i.e.
0000 1111 == 0x0F
1111 1010 == 0xFA
since c++14 you can use
0b00001111;
Now, if you shift your binary mask left or right, you will have the following pictures
00001111 (OxF) << 2 ==> 00111100 (0x3C)
00001111 (0xF) >> 2 ==> 00000011 (0x03)
Now, supposedly you have an number in which you are interested in bits 4 to 7 (4 bits)
int bad = 0x0BAD; // == 0000 1011 1010 1101
you can create a mask as
int mask = 0x00F0; // == 0000 0000 1111 00000
and do bitwise and
int result = bad & mask; // ==> 0000 0000 1010 000 (0x00A0)
You will mask 4 bits in the middle of the word, but it will print as 0xA0. probably not what you would expect. To print it as 0xA you would need to shift the result 4 bits right: result >> 4. I prefer doing it in a bit different order, shifting the 'bad' first and then mask:
int result = (bad >> 4) & 0xF;
I hope the above will help you to understand bits.
I am new to Bitwise Operator,I found the following line in wikipedia of "Bitwise operator" -(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitwise_operation )
If the binary number is treated as ones' complement, then the same
right-shift operation results in division by 2n and rounding toward
zero.
But not sure what it meant.Please help me to understand this.
It's about Right Shift Operation. Below answer is taken from my own blog:
Bitwise Operations
>> is a right shift bitwise operator which works exactly like left shift operator but it’s different in 2 aspects only.
If number is negative (most significant bit is 1) , it will fill gaps with 1 otherwise with 0
It shifts bits from right
7 >> 2
0000 0111 >> 2
0000 01 (See two 1’s from right have been shifted)
00 0000 01 (Added two 0’s, because number is positive)
0000 0001 = 1
So 7 >> 2 = 1
For negative number, it fills gaps with 1 instead of 0.
Remember 7 >> 2 = 1 and -7 >> 2 = -1.
It just preserves the sign, everything else remains same. If you closely observe right shift operator, you will find that it can be written as:
7 >> 2 => (7) / (2^2) => 7/4 => 1
This is what Wikipedia means, you can take right shift operator as:
NUMBER (7) / power (2, NUMBER_OF_TIMES (2)) and rounds it off
Given any 8 bits negative integer (signed so between -1 and -128), a right shift in HLA causes an overflow and I don't understand why. If shifted once, it should basically divide the value by 2. This is true for positive numbers but obviously not for negative. Why? So for example if -10 is entered the result is +123.
Program cpy;
#include ("stdlib.hhf")
#include ("hla.hhf")
static
i:int8;
begin cpy;
stdout.put("Enter value to divide by 2: ");
stdin.geti8();
mov(al,i);
shr(1,i); //shift bits one position right
if(#o)then // if overlow
stdout.put("overflow");
endif;
end cpy;
Signed numbers are represented with their 2's complement in binary, plus a sign bit "on the left".
The 2's complement of 10 coded on 7 bits is 1110110, and the sign bit value for negative numbers is 1.
-10: 1111 0110
^
|
sign bit
Then you shift it to the right (when you right shift zeroes get added to the left):
-10 >> 1: 0111 1001
^
|
sign bit
Your sign bit is worth 0 (positive), and 1111011 is 123 in decimal.
I've seen the operators >> and << in various code that I've looked at (none of which I actually understood), but I'm just wondering what they actually do and what some practical uses of them are.
If the shifts are like x * 2 and x / 2, what is the real difference from actually using the * and / operators? Is there a performance difference?
Here is an applet where you can exercise some bit-operations, including shifting.
You have a collection of bits, and you move some of them beyond their bounds:
1111 1110 << 2
1111 1000
It is filled from the right with fresh zeros. :)
0001 1111 >> 3
0000 0011
Filled from the left. A special case is the leading 1. It often indicates a negative value - depending on the language and datatype. So often it is wanted, that if you shift right, the first bit stays as it is.
1100 1100 >> 1
1110 0110
And it is conserved over multiple shifts:
1100 1100 >> 2
1111 0011
If you don't want the first bit to be preserved, you use (in Java, Scala, C++, C as far as I know, and maybe more) a triple-sign-operator:
1100 1100 >>> 1
0110 0110
There isn't any equivalent in the other direction, because it doesn't make any sense - maybe in your very special context, but not in general.
Mathematically, a left-shift is a *=2, 2 left-shifts is a *=4 and so on. A right-shift is a /= 2 and so on.
Left bit shifting to multiply by any power of two and right bit shifting to divide by any power of two.
For example, x = x * 2; can also be written as x<<1 or x = x*8 can be written as x<<3 (since 2 to the power of 3 is 8). Similarly x = x / 2; is x>>1 and so on.
Left Shift
x = x * 2^value (normal operation)
x << value (bit-wise operation)
x = x * 16 (which is the same as 2^4)
The left shift equivalent would be x = x << 4
Right Shift
x = x / 2^value (normal arithmetic operation)
x >> value (bit-wise operation)
x = x / 8 (which is the same as 2^3)
The right shift equivalent would be x = x >> 3
Left shift: It is equal to the product of the value which has to be shifted and 2 raised to the power of number of bits to be shifted.
Example:
1 << 3
0000 0001 ---> 1
Shift by 1 bit
0000 0010 ----> 2 which is equal to 1*2^1
Shift By 2 bits
0000 0100 ----> 4 which is equal to 1*2^2
Shift by 3 bits
0000 1000 ----> 8 which is equal to 1*2^3
Right shift: It is equal to quotient of value which has to be shifted by 2 raised to the power of number of bits to be shifted.
Example:
8 >> 3
0000 1000 ---> 8 which is equal to 8/2^0
Shift by 1 bit
0000 0100 ----> 4 which is equal to 8/2^1
Shift By 2 bits
0000 0010 ----> 2 which is equal to 8/2^2
Shift by 3 bits
0000 0001 ----> 1 which is equal to 8/2^3
Left bit shifting to multiply by any power of two.
Right bit shifting to divide by any power of two.
x = x << 5; // Left shift
y = y >> 5; // Right shift
In C/C++ it can be written as,
#include <math.h>
x = x * pow(2, 5);
y = y / pow(2, 5);
The bit shift operators are more efficient as compared to the / or * operators.
In computer architecture, divide(/) or multiply(*) take more than one time unit and register to compute result, while, bit shift operator, is just one one register and one time unit computation.
Some examples:
Bit operations for example converting to and from Base64 (which is 6 bits instead of 8)
doing power of 2 operations (1 << 4 equal to 2^4 i.e. 16)
Writing more readable code when working with bits. For example, defining constants using
1 << 4 or 1 << 5 is more readable.
Yes, I think performance-wise you might find a difference as bitwise left and right shift operations can be performed with a complexity of o(1) with a huge data set.
For example, calculating the power of 2 ^ n:
int value = 1;
while (exponent<n)
{
// Print out current power of 2
value = value *2; // Equivalent machine level left shift bit wise operation
exponent++;
}
}
Similar code with a bitwise left shift operation would be like:
value = 1 << n;
Moreover, performing a bit-wise operation is like exacting a replica of user level mathematical operations (which is the final machine level instructions processed by the microcontroller and processor).
Here is an example:
#include"stdio.h"
#include"conio.h"
void main()
{
int rm, vivek;
clrscr();
printf("Enter any numbers\t(E.g., 1, 2, 5");
scanf("%d", &rm); // rm = 5(0101) << 2 (two step add zero's), so the value is 10100
printf("This left shift value%d=%d", rm, rm<<4);
printf("This right shift value%d=%d", rm, rm>>2);
getch();
}