Bitwise operations in C

In the <a href="/facts/C_/Ky2No763">C programming language</a>, operations can be performed on a <a href="/facts/Bit/S972NSaD">bit level</a> using <a href="/facts/Bitwise_operation/0gkqnUda">bitwise operators</a>.
Bitwise operations are contrasted by <a href="/facts/Byte/BNHUp9Qq">byte-level</a> operations which characterize the bitwise operators' logical counterparts, the AND, OR, NOT operators. Instead of performing on individual bits, byte-level operators perform on strings of eight bits (known as bytes) at a time. The reason for this is that a byte is normally the smallest unit of addressable memory (i.e. data with a unique <a href="/facts/Memory_address/7EsUmbea">memory address</a>).
This applies to bitwise operators as well, which means that even though they operate on only one bit at a time they cannot accept anything smaller than a byte as their input.
All of these operators are also available in <a href="/facts/C%252B%252B/Et0F2qn9">C++</a>, and many <a href="/facts/C-family/Pn4W8RB3">C-family</a> languages.

Bitwise operations in C open-in-new

Bitwise operations in C