Bitwise operations are powerful tools for manipulating data at the binary level. They can help you perform tasks such as compression, encryption, masking, and arithmetic faster and more efficiently than using higher-level operations. In this article, you will learn what bitwise operations are, how they work, and some common use cases for them in programming.
Bitwise operations are operations that act on individual bits of data, rather than on larger units such as bytes or words. They use logical operators such as AND, OR, XOR, NOT, and SHIFT to manipulate the binary representation of data. For example, the bitwise AND operation takes two bits and returns 1 if both are 1, otherwise 0. The bitwise OR operation takes two bits and returns 1 if either or both are 1, otherwise 0.
Worth noting here is that these operations are generally super fast cause they can be "directly" executed by any CPU usually in a single, or very few, clocks.
Bitwise operations work by applying the logical operators to each pair of corresponding bits in the operands. For example, if you want to perform a bitwise AND operation on the numbers 12 and 9, you would first convert them to binary: 12 is 1100 and 9 is 1001. Then, you would align them and apply the AND operator to each pair of bits: 1100 & 1001 = 1000. The result is 8 in decimal. Similarly, you can perform other bitwise operations by using different logical operators.
Bitwise operations offer several advantages over higher-level operations, such as speed, memory, and flexibility. Bitwise operations are faster because they operate directly on the hardware level, without any intermediate steps or conversions. Additionally, they can save memory by using fewer bits to store or transmit data. For example, you can use bitwise operations to compress or encode data. Furthermore, they provide more control and flexibility over how you manipulate data. For instance, you can use bitwise operations to mask data by setting or clearing specific bits or shift data by moving bits left or right.
Bitwise operations are supported by most programming languages, either as built-in operators or as library functions. Though the syntax and behavior of bitwise operations may vary slightly depending on the language, the basic principles remain the same. To use bitwise operations in programming, you need to understand the binary representation of data and how it is stored and converted between binary and other formats, such as decimal, hexadecimal, or ASCII. Additionally, you have to choose the appropriate bitwise operator that matches your desired outcome and apply it to the operands. You may also need to use parentheses, bitwise assignment operators, or bitwise compound operators to combine multiple bitwise operations. Finally, you must handle the result of the bitwise operation by storing it in a variable, printing it, or using it for further calculations. You may also need to cast the result to a different data type or mask it to avoid unwanted side effects.
Bitwise operations are a powerful way to manipulate data efficiently at the binary level. They can be used for a variety of tasks and challenges in programming, such as compression, encryption, masking, and arithmetic. For example, you could use bitwise operations to implement Huffman coding for compression, XOR encryption for encryption, bit flags for masking, and binary addition for arithmetic. By understanding the binary representation of data, selecting the right bitwise operator, and managing the result, you can use bitwise operations in your programming projects with greater speed and efficiency than higher-level operations.
It is true that bitwise operations are very fast and consume little memory but they have a drawback, the readability of the code (especially for developers who have little knowledge of systems engineering). Therefore, when using them you have to make an extra effort to program in a clear way and add the relevant comments in the code.