Meaning of << operator in C

Question

I am wondering to know What is the meaning of operator << in

#define  x (10 * (1<<12));

It's a left shift operator, as any [decent book on C](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/562303/the-definitive-c-book-guide-and-list) would tell you. — Jerry Coffin, Jul 01 '13 at 03:21

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:28

It's the bitshift operator. << is shift left, >> is shift right. 1 << 12 means shift the value (the int '1') 12 bits to the left.

'1' is 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000001 in binary, if it's a 32 bit integer. To shift it left 12 places, changes it to: 00000000 00000000 00010000 00000000

If you were to shift 5 << 8, '5' is 101 in binary, so it'll shift:

00000000 00000000 00000000 00000101

Into:

00000000 00000000 00000101 00000000

See this question for details on the other bitwise operators.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 01 '13 at 03:21

1

It means 1 shifted 12 bits to the left. You can find thisand more at a quick reference at:

http://www.sourcepole.ch/sources/programming/cpp/cppqref.html

answered Jul 01 '13 at 03:21

Bardicer

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Meaning of << operator in C

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