Why must I use the ~ operator when clearing a bit? [duplicate] - c

This question already has answers here:
How do I set, clear, and toggle a single bit?
(27 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
For example, if I want to set a bit in y at position n (in C)
y = y | (1 << n)
But if I want to delete a bit in y at position n I have to use the ~ operator after binary AND.
y = y & ~(1 << n);
My question: Why Must I use the ~ operator?
Is this because the result turns into negative area?

If you want to set a bit at third place from the right :
Y : 01001000
1 << 2 : 00000100
Y | (1 << 2) : 01001100 The | is OR, bits are set to 1 if any is 1.
If you want to remove the bit :
1 << 2 : 00000100
~(1 << 2) : 11111011 The ~ is NOT, bits are inversed
Y : 01001100
Y & ~(1 << 2) : 01001000 The & is AND, bits are set to 1 if both are 1.
I suggest you read more about Bitwise operators

No, ~ has nothing to do with interpreting the number as negative: tilde ~ operator interprets the number as a pattern of bits, which it then inverts (i.e. replaces zeros with ones and ones with zeros). In fact, if you apply ~ to an unsigned value, the result would remain positive.
Recall that 1 << k expression produces a pattern of all zeros and a single 1 at the position designated by k. This is a bit mask that can be used to force bit at position k to 1 by applying OR operation.
Now consider what happens when you apply ~ to it: all 0s would become 1s, and the only 1 would become zero. Hence, the result is a bit mask suitable for forcing a single bit to zero by applying AND operation.

The ~ operator turns all of the 0's to 1's and all of the 1's to 0's. In order to clear the bint in position n you want to and it will all ones and a zero in the nth position so shift a one to the nth position and ~ invert all the bits.

1 << n for n==3 (just an example) gives you a pattern 0000000...0001000. ~ negates the bit
pattern to 11111111....11110111. Using the bitwise AND operator (&) will
only set the required bit to 0, all other remain with the same value. It's using
the fact that for a bit b: b & 1 == b.
~ flips all bits, it has nothing to do with negative numbers.
A graphical representation for a sequence of k-bits
pos k-1 k-2 0
+---+---+-------------------+---+---+
1: | 0 | 0 | ··· | 0 | 1 |
+---+---+-------------------+---+---+
pos k-1 k-2 n n-1 0
+---+---+-----+---+---+---+-----+---+
1<<n | 0 | 0 | ··· | 1 | 0 | 0 | ··· | 0 |
+---+---+-----+---+---+---+-----+---+
pos k-1 k-2 n n-1 0
+---+---+-----+---+---+---+-----+---+
~(1<<n) | 1 | 1 | ··· | 0 | 1 | 1 | ··· | 1 |
+---+---+-----+---+---+---+-----+---+

Related

Using Bitwise Operators in C [duplicate]

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How does this work? Weird Towers of Hanoi Solution
(3 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
I am a beginner to C language.I have a code for towers of hanoi but can someone explain me what are these bitwise operators doing ie if value of i is 1 what will be the source and target output value ?
source = (i & i-1) % 3;
target = ((i | i-1) + 1) % 3;
i & i-1 turns off the lowest set bit in i (if there are any set). For example, consider i=200:
200 in binary is 1100 1000. (The space is inserted for visual convenience.)
To subtract one, the zeros cause us to “borrow” from the next position until we reach a one, producing 1100 0111. Note that, working from the right, all the zeros became ones, and the first one became a zero.
The & produces the bits that are set in both operands. Since i-1 changed all the bits up to the first one, those bits are clear in the &—none of the changed bits are the same in both i and i-1, so none of them is a one in both. The other ones in i, above the lowest one bit, are the same in both i and i-1, so they remain ones in i & i-1. The result of i & i-1 is 1100 0000.
1100 0000 is 1100 1000 with the lowest set bit turned off.
Then the % 3 is selecting which pole in Towers of Hanoi to use as the source. This is discussed in this question.
Similarly i | i-1 turns on all the low zeros in i, all the zeros up to the lowest one bit. Then (i | i-1) + 1 adds one to that. The result is the same as adding one to the lowest one bit in i. That is, the result is i + x, where x is the lowest bit set in i. Using our example value:
i is 1100 1000 and i-1 is 1100 0111.
i | i-1 is 1100 1111.
(i | i-1) + 1 is 1101 0000, which equals 1100 1000 + 0000 1000.
And again, the % 3 selects a pole.
A quick overview of bitwise operators:
Each operator takes the bits of both numbers and applies the operation to each bit of it.
& Bitwise AND
True only if both bits are true.
Truth table:
A | B | A & B
-------------
0 | 0 | 0
1 | 0 | 0
0 | 1 | 0
1 | 1 | 1
| Bitwise OR
True if either bit is true.
Truth table:
A | B | A | B
-------------
0 | 0 | 0
1 | 0 | 1
0 | 1 | 1
1 | 1 | 1
^ Bitwise XOR
True if only one bit is true.
Truth table:
A | B | A ^ B
-------------
0 | 0 | 0
1 | 0 | 1
0 | 1 | 1
1 | 1 | 0
~ Bitwise NOT
Inverts each bit. 1 -> 0, 0 -> 1. This is a unary operator.
Truth table:
A | ~A
------
0 | 1
1 | 0
In your case, if i = 1,
the expressions would be evaluated as:
source = (1 & 1-1) % 3;
target = ((1 | 1-1) + 1) % 3;
// =>
source = (1 & 0) % 3;
target = ((1 | 0) + 1) % 3;
// =>
source = 0 % 3;
target = (1 + 1) % 3;
// =>
source = 0;
target = 2 % 3;
// =>
source = 0;
target = 2;
Good answer above, here is a high-level approach:
i == 1:
source: (1 & 0). Are both of these values true or >= 1? No they are not. So the overall result is 0, 0 % 3 = 0.
target: ((1 | 0) + 1) % 3.
(1 | 0) evaluates to 1(true) since one of the two values on the sides of the | operator are 1, so now we have (1 + 1). so then it follows we have 2 % 3 = 2.
Source: 0, target: 2

How can I interpret << and | in C

I need help to understand what is happening in this declaration:
#define LDA(m) (LDA_OP << 5 | ((m) & 0x001f))
Thank you
y << x is a left shift of y by x.
x & y is a bitwise and of x and y.
So, the left shift operator is like multiplying by 10 in base 10, but instead you multiply for 2 in base 2, for example:
In base 10
300 * 10 = 3000
In base 2:
0b0001 * 2 = 0b0010 = 0b0001 << 1
with a << b you "push" the number a, b places to the left.
and the or operator ( | )
you have to take two bits and if one or both of them are true (1) then the result is true.
For example:
0b0010 | 0b0001 = 0b0011
0b0010 | 0b0010 = 0b0010
If you have problems with this operators, just try to work the same numbers but in binary.

what is the function of $value & 15

I have been going over a perl book i have recently purchased, and while reading I noticed a block of code that confused me..
use integer;
$value = 257;
while($value){
unshift #digits, (0..9,a..f)[$value & 15];
$value /= 16;
}
print digits;
the book mentions the purpose was to reverse the order of digits. however, new to perl I am having trouble figuring out what [$value & 15] is doing.
It's a bitwise and operation.
What it's doing is performing a bitwise and using the value of 15 and whatever value is contained in $value.
The resulting value is the decimal value that corresponds to the result of a bitwise and with the lower 4 bits of the value.
Ex:
$value = 21
which has a binary representation of: 0b10101
Performing a bitwise and with 15 means that any bits in $value will be zeroed if they are either outside the lower 4 bit range, or contain no 1's in the lower 4 bits.
The result is:
0b10101
&
0b 1111
-------
0b00101 = 5
Looking up the truth tables for performing bitwise operations will help with stuff like this in the future, but when performing an AND with any value, the result is only true, when both bits are 1, 0 otherwise.
V1 | V2 | V1 & V2
-----------------
0 | 0 | 0
0 | 1 | 0
1 | 0 | 0
1 | 1 | 1

Understanding this symbol in C

What does the & mean in this code:
(number >> 9) & 0b111
I know about & in terms of pointers. But not sure how it works in the code above
Lets break it down:
(number >> 9) & 0b111
| | | | |
| | | | Binary '7'*
| | | Binary AND
| | Number to shift by
| Binary shift operator
Variable
We'll start with the expression in the parenthesis:
(number >> 9)
This performs a binary right-shift by 9 places. For example:
1101101010010011 will be shifted to become:
0000000001101101
The & symbol is Binary AND. Where the bits are both 1 in both of the source variables, the returned value will have those bits set:
01101
& 11010
= 01000
So your code shifts your number by 9 places and performs AND on the result against b111. As the three least significant bits are all set in the second input, the result of this operation will be the bits that are set in the bottom three bits of the shifted input.
Example:
number = 1101101010010011
number >> 9 = 0000000001101101
(number >> 9) & '111' = 0000000000000101
An alternate way of thinking about it is as follows: The line extracts bits 10-12 and returns them as the result.
XXXXbbbXXXXXXXXX -> bbb
A common use for this is to apply a mask to a value to extract the bits. E.g. some libraries allow you to pass parameters with enumerable types like this:
set_params(option_a | option_b);
which sets both option_a and option_b.
Whether a parameter is set can be read by:
set_params(unsigned int params)
{
if (params & option_a)
{ /* do option_a stuff */}
}
*assuming your compiler has a binary extension to the C spec. otherwise you could use 0x7 (hex 7) or just 7
It is the bitwise AND operator.
More info here:
Wikipedia link
& is Bitwise AND
The C operators are here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operators_in_C_and_C%2B%2B

Changing the LSB to 1 in a 4 bit integer via C

I am receiving a number N where N is a 4-bit integer and I need to change its LSB to 1 without changing the other 3 bits in the number using C.
Basically, all must read XXX1.
So lets say n = 2, the binary would be 0010. I would change the LSB to 1 making the number 0011.
I am struggling with finding a combination of operations that will do this. I am working with: !, ~, &, |, ^, <<, >>, +, -, =.
This has really been driving me crazy and I have been playing around with >>/<< and ~ and starting out with 0xF.
Try
number |= 1;
This should set the LSB to 1 regardless of what the number is. Why? Because the bitwise OR (|) operator does exactly what its name suggests: it logical ORs the two numbers' bits. So if you have, say, 1010b and 1b (10 and 1 in decimal), then the operator does this:
1 0 1 0
OR 0 0 0 1
= 1 0 1 1
And that's exactly what you want.
For your information, the
number |= 1;
statement is equivalent to
number = number | 1;
Use x = x | 0x01; to set the LSB to 1
A visualization
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
OR
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
----------------------
? ? ? ? ? ? ? 1
Therefore other bits will stay the same except the LSB is set to 1.
Use the bitwise or operator |. It looks at two numbers bit by bit, and returns the number generated by performing an OR with each bit.
int n = 2;
n = n | 1;
printf("%d\n", n); // prints the number 3
In binary, 2 = 0010, 3 = 0011, and 1 = 0001
0010
OR 0001
-------
0011
If n is not 0
n | !!n
works.
If n is 0, then !n is what you want.
UPDATE
The fancy one liner :P
n = n ? n | !!n : !n;

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