Bitwise operators

Bitwise operators work on integer types (byte, short, int, long) at the bit level.

Operator	Description	Example
&	Bitwise AND	a & b
|	Bitwise OR	a | b
^	Bitwise XOR	a ^ b
~	Bitwise complement (unary)	~a
<<	Left shift	a << b
>>	Signed right shift	a >> b
>>>	Unsigned right shift	a >>> b

Examples:

int a = 0b1010; // 10
int b = 0b1100; // 12

System.out.println(a & b); // 0b1000 (8)
System.out.println(a | b); // 0b1110 (14)
System.out.println(a ^ b); // 0b0110 (6)
System.out.println(~a);    // bitwise complement (2's complement)

System.out.println(a << 1); // 0b10100 (20) (shift left by 1 = multiply by 2)
System.out.println(a >> 1); // 0b0101 (5) (signed shift right = divide by 2, sign preserved)

Shift operators:

• << shifts left, filling with zero bits.
• >> shifts right, preserving sign bit (arithmetic shift).
• >>> shifts right, always filling with zero bits (logical shift).

int n = -16;
System.out.println(n >> 2);  // -4 (sign extended)
System.out.println(n >>> 2); // large positive (unsigned shift)

Use cases: Flags, low‑level I/O, encryption, performance‑critical operations.