bitwise

bitwise

   <programming> A bitwise operator treats its operands as a
   {vector} of {bits} rather than a single number.  {Boolean}
   bitwise operators combine bit N of each operand using a
   {Boolean} function ({NOT}, {AND}, {OR}, {XOR}) to produce bit
   N of the result.

   For example, a bitwise AND operator ("&" in {C}) would
   evaluate 13 & 9 as (binary) 1101 & 1001 = 1001 = 9, whereas,
   the logical AND, ({C} "&&") would evaluate 13 && 9 as TRUE &&
   TRUE = TRUE = 1.

   In some languages, e.g. {Acorn}'s {BASIC V}, the same operators
   are used for both bitwise and logical operations.  This
   usually works except when applying NOT to a value x which is
   neither 0 (false) nor -1 (true), in which case both x and (NOT
   x) will be non-zero and thus treated as TRUE.

   Other operations at the bit level, which are not normally
   described as "bitwise" include shift and rotate.

   (1995-05-12)