What Does this << Statement Mean?

Question

I am working on a simple project in C where I encountered this statement in one of the tutorials.

int i = 1 << 2 ;

What does this statement actually do?

[Bitwise Operator](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitwise_operations_in_C#Left_shift_.3C.3C) — Dayal rai, Jun 03 '15 at 07:04
It is the bitwise left shift operator. In your case it does the same thing as this: `int i = 1 * 4 ;` which can be simplified to `int i = 4 ;` — Spikatrix, Jun 03 '15 at 07:04

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 03 '15 at 07:03

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This is also called the shift operator. It will shift de bits n positions to the left. Shifting the bits by one positions is the same as multiplying or dividing by 2.

answered Jun 03 '15 at 07:03

Michiel uit het Broek

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 03 '15 at 07:03

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It is a left-shift operator.

It applies on the bit representation of 1 and shift it's bits to left by 2 position.

answered Jun 03 '15 at 07:03

Razib

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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 03 '15 at 07:38

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Shift left is a bitwise operation. Look here: Bitwise operations in C wiki

edited Jun 03 '15 at 07:38

WedaPashi

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answered Jun 03 '15 at 07:05

Shay Gold

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score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 03 '15 at 07:24

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<< is a binary Left Shift operator. The left operands value is shifted left by the number of bits specified by the right operand. and 0 are padded in the right. So the binary of 1 i.e, 1 is shifted left 2 places and becomes 100 which is 4 in decimal number system. So i is assigned 4.

Here is a quick tutorial that explains bitwise operations

edited Jun 03 '15 at 07:24

WedaPashi

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answered Jun 03 '15 at 07:06

Sourav Kanta

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What Does this << Statement Mean?

4 Answers4