Bitwise Operators

Bitwise operators work on the binary bits of integers. They're used in low-level programming.

A quick example

python
print(6 & 3)

### 2
print(6 | 3)

### 7
print(6 ^ 3)

### 5
print(~6)

### -7
print(5 << 1)

### 10  (shift left = multiply by 2)
print(5 >> 1)

### 2   (shift right = divide by 2)

What's happening

6 in binary is 110, and 3 is 011:

• AND keeps bits where both are 1: 010 = 2
• OR keeps bits where either is 1: 111 = 7
• XOR keeps bits where exactly one is 1: 101 = 5

Shifts

<< moves bits left (doubling), >> moves them right (halving):

python
print(1 << 3)

### 8
print(8 >> 2)

### 2

When to use them

Most everyday Python code never touches bits. They shine for:

• flags and permission systems
• graphics and compression
• performance-critical math

TL;DR

• & AND, | OR, ^ XOR, ~ NOT.
• << and >> shift bits left and right.
• A left shift by one doubles; a right shift by one halves.
• Mostly for low-level and performance work.