Java Bitwise and Bit Shift Operators with Examples

As the name itself suggests, Bitwise and Bit shift operators operates on bits(0 and 1). They operates on binary representation of operands. These operators can be used with integer(byte, short, int and long) data type variables or values only and they always returns a numerical value. Let's see these operator types one by one.

Bitwise operators in Java

As the name itself suggests, bitwise operator performs operation bit by bit wise. Table below shows the list of all bitwise operators in java. Consider a and b as two integer type variables.

All the bitwise operators except complement operator are binary operators. The bitwise complement operator is a unary operator, as it requires only one operand to perform the operation. It belongs to bitwise operator type because it works on bits.

Bitwise AND operator in Java

Bitwise AND(&) operator performs bitwise AND operation on corresponding bits of both the operands. It returns 1 if both the bit's are 1 else it returns 0. For example & operation between two byte variable with value as 53(00110101) and 79(01001111) will result in 5(00000101).

 1 & 1 = 1 
 1 & 0 = 0
 0 & 1 = 0
 0 & 0 = 0

Bitwise OR operator in Java

Bitwise OR(|) operator performs bitwise OR operation on corresponding bits of both the operands. It returns 1 if any of the bit's is 1 else it returns 0. For example | operation between two byte variable with value as 53(00110101) and 79(01001111) will result in 127(01111111).

 1 | 1 = 1 
 1 | 0 = 1
 0 | 1 = 1
 0 | 0 = 0

Bitwise Exclusive OR operator in Java

Bitwise XOR(^) operator performs bitwise exclusive OR operation on corresponding bits of both the operands. It returns 1 if both bit's are different else it returns 0. For example XOR operation between two byte variable with value as 53(00110101) and 79(01001111) will result in 122(01111010).

 1 | 1 = 0 
 1 | 0 = 1
 0 | 1 = 1
 0 | 0 = 0

Bitwise complement operator

The unary bitwise complement operator ~ inverts the bit pattern of an operand. It converts 0 as 1 and 1 as 0. For example a byte data type contains 8 bits, using this operator with a byte variable with value whose bit pattern is "00110101" would be changed as "11001010".

Bitwise operator program in Java

 class BitwiseOperatorDemo {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
       byte num1 = 53;   
       byte num2 = 79;
       int result;
		       
       result = num1 & num2;  
       System.out.println("num1 & num2 = " + result);

       result = num1 | num2;
       System.out.println("num1 | num2 = " + result);

       result = num1 ^ num2;
       System.out.println("num1 ^ num2 = " + result);

       result = ~num1;  /* 11001010(-54, 2's complement form) = ~00110101 */
       System.out.println("~num1 = " + result );
   }
 }					

Output:

Bit Shift operator in Java

As the name itself suggests, the bit shift operators shifts the bits of an operand to left or right depending on the shift operator used. In bit shift operator, the bit pattern(operand) is given in left-side while the number of positions to shift by is given in right side of the operator. All bit shift operators are binary operators in java as they requires two operands to operate. Table below shows the list of all bit shift operators in java.

Signed left shift operator in Java

The signed left shift operator "<<" shifts a bit pattern to the left by the number of positions given in the right side of this operator. It places 0 in right side for every shift. Java stores number's in 2's complement notation(Refer wiki for more), in which most significant bit(leftmost bit) is used for sign bit. In java, if sign bit is 0, it means the number is positive and if it is 1, it means the number is negative.

Using this operator a negative number can become a positive number and vice-versa. If a 0 comes into sign bit after shifting the bits of a negative number, then it becomes a positive number. Similarly if 1 comes into sign bit after shifting the bits of a positive number, then it becomes a negative number. These conditions are indications of underflow and overflow respectively.

Signed right shift operator in java

The signed right shift operator ">>" shifts a bit pattern to the right by the number of positions given in the right side of this operator. The signed right shift operator places 0(for +ve number) or 1(for -ve number) in left side for every shift. That is why using this operator with a positive number will always be positive while a negative number will always be negative.

Unsigned right shift operator in java

The unsigned right shift operator ">>>" shifts a bit pattern to the right by the number of positions given in the right side of this operator and places a 0 into the leftmost position in every shift, no matter whether the number is negative or positive. That is why this operator always returns a positive number.

Bit Shift operators program in Java

 class BitShiftOperatorDemo {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      byte num1 = 53;   
      byte num2 = -75;
      byte result;

      result = (byte)(num1 << 1);  /* 01101010 = 00110101<<2 */
      System.out.println("num1 << 1 = " + result);

      result = (byte)(num1 << 2);  /* 11010100 = 00110101<<2 */
      System.out.println("num1 << 2 = " + result);
      
      result = (byte)(num1 >> 2);  /* 00001101 = 00110101>>2 */
      System.out.println("num1 >> 2  = " + result);

      result = (byte)(num1 >>> 2); /* 00001101 = 00110101>>>2 */
      System.out.println("num1 >>> 2 = " + result);
   }
 }					

Note : By default operations in java returns an int type, that is why an explicit conversion has been done in above program.

Output: