Bitwise Operations

CSE 220: Systems Programming

Ethan Blanton
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University at Buffalo
Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Bitwise Operations
We have seen arithmetic and logical integer operations.

C also supports bitwise operations.

These operations correspond to circuit elements.

They are often related to, yet different from, logical operations.

The major operations are:

Bitwise complement
Bit shifts (left and right)
Bitwise AND, OR, and XOR

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Planning: Documentation
How do you absorb the documentation?

Read and take notes:

What is hard?
What requires more information?
What can you do right now?

Read:
The handout
The README/etc.
The given code and its comments

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Truth Tables
You should already be familiar with truth tables.

Every bitwise operation (except shift) is defined by a truth table.

A truth table represents one or two input bits and their output bit.

For example, bitwise OR:

x y Result
0 0 0
1 0 1
0 1 1
1 1 1

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Bitwise Operations
OR (∨):
AND (∧):
x y Result
0 0 0 x y Result
1 0 1 0 0 0
0 1 1 1 0 0
1 1 1 0 1 0
1 1 1
XOR (⊕):
NOT (¬):
x y Result
0 0 0 x Result
1 0 1 0 1
0 1 1 1 0
1 1 0
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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Bit Operations on Words

Each of these bit operations can be applied to a word.

Each bit position will have the operation applied individually.

E.g., the application of XOR to an n-bit word is:

∀n−1
i=0 Resulti = xi ⊕ yi

Each operation applies to a single bit, so no carries are needed.

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Bit Shifting
Bit shifts are slightly more complicated.

C can shift bits left or right.

Left shift (<<): bits move toward larger bit values

Right shift (>>): bits move toward smaller bit values

For left shift, zeroes are shifted in on the right.

Examples:
0111 left shift 1 bit → 1110
0010 left shift 2 bits → 1000

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Right Shifts
Right shifts are somewhat trickier.

In particular, they may obey sign extension.

If the shifted integer is unsigned, zeroes are shifted in on the left:

0110 right shift 1 bit → 0011
1010 right shift 2 bits → 0010

If the shifted integer is signed, the sign bit may affect the shift.
If it is zero, shifts behave as unsigned
If it is one, it might shift in ones

If [the shifted value] is a signed type and a negative value, the

resulting value is implementation-defined. — ISO C99
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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Operators
The C bitwise operators divide into unary and binary operators:

Unary:
~x: Bitwise complement of x (0 → 1, 1 → 0)

Binary:
x | y: Bitwise OR of x and y
x & y: Bitwise AND of x and y
x ^ y: Bitwise XOR of x and y
x << y: Left shift x by y bits
x >> y: Right shift x by y bits

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Bit versus Logical Operators

Do not confuse the bit and logical operators!

Some of them work correctly for integers; e.g., |.

Some decidedly do not, e.g., &:

1 & 2 → logical false!

Not (~) and and (&) are particularly pernicious because they
often work.

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Masking
Many bitwise operations are used to work on a portion of a word.

This typically requires masking either:

The bits to be modified
The bits to be ignored

Masking uses & and sometimes ~.

For example, to get the lowest 8 bits of an integer:

eightbits = x & 0 xff ;

(You might remember this from dumpmem().)

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Bit Twiddling
Setting and unsetting individual bits typically uses masking.

Assume we want to set bit zero:

# define LOWBIT 0 x1

x = x | LOWBIT ;

Later, we want to unset bit zero:

x = x & ~ LOWBIT ;

In this case, ~LOWBIT is a mask for all bits except 0.

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Twiddling with XOR

If you always want to complement a bit, you can use XOR.

This comes from the truth table; assume y is a constant 1:

x y Result
0 0 0
1 0 1
0 1 1
1 1 0

x = x ^ LOWBIT ;

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Shifting and Powers of 2

Note that bit shifting is multiplying by powers of 2!

A one-bit shift is multiplying by 2:

0010 → 2
0100 → 4
0011 → 3
0110 → 6

Successive bit shifts continue to multiply by 2.

1 (= 20 )
1 << k (= 2k )

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Forcing Endianness

int htonl ( int input ) {

int output ;
char * outb = ( char *) & output ;
for ( int b = 0; b < sizeof ( int ); b ++) {
int shift = ( sizeof ( int ) - b - 1) * 8;
outb [b ] = ( input >> shift ) & 0 xff ;
}
return output ;
}

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

htonl in Action

int x = 0 x01020304 ;
int y = htonl ( x ) ;

dump_mem (& x , sizeof ( x ) ) ;

dump_mem (& y , sizeof ( y ) ) ;

04 03 02 01
01 02 03 04

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

Summary

C can manipulate individual bits in memory.

Bit operations can be subtle and tricky!
Signedness matters.
Bit manipulations can force endianness or other
representations.

© 2021 Ethan Blanton / CSE 220: Systems Programming 17

Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

References I
Required Readings
[1] Randal E. Bryant and David R. O’Hallaron. Computer Science: A Programmer’s
Perspective. Third Edition. Chapter 2, 2.1.6–2.1.9. Pearson, 2016.
[2] Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie. The C Programming Language. Second
Edition. Chapter 2, 2.9, Appendix A, A7.4.6, A7.8, A7.11–A7.13. Prentice Hall, 1988.

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Introduction Bit Operations C Bit Manipulation Example Summary References

License

Copyright 2021 Ethan Blanton, All Rights Reserved.

Copyright 2019 Karthik Dantu, All Rights Reserved.

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