Bitwise

Learn &, |, ^, ~, <<, >> bitwise operators.

Bitwise operators

Bitwise operators work on the binary representation of numbers: & and, | or, ^ xor, ~ not, << left shift, >> right shift.

print(5 & 3)   # 1  (0101 & 0011 = 0001)
print(5 | 3)   # 7  (0101 | 0011 = 0111)
print(5 << 1)  # 10 (left shift)

These operators are used for low-level programming and performance. They are rarely needed in everyday code.

<< left shift moves each bit one position left; it is equivalent to multiplying by 2. >> right shift is equivalent to dividing by 2.

print(4 << 1)   # 8  (4 * 2)
print(8 >> 1)   # 4  (8 / 2)

These operators are used for fast multiply/divide but can make code unreadable. Modern Python prefers explicit multiply/divide.

Print print(5 & 3) and print(5 | 3).

Show example solution

print(5 & 3)
print(5 | 3)