logical shift left

logical shift
logical shift left
logical shift right
shift left logical
shift right logical

   <programming> (Either shift left logical or shift right
   logical) Machine-level operations available on nearly all
   processors which move each bit in a word one or more bit
   positions in the given direction.  A left shift moves the bits
   to more significant positions (like multiplying by two), a
   right shift moves them to less significant positions (like
   dividing by two).  The comparison with multiplication and
   division breaks down in certain circumstances - a logical
   shift may discard bits that are shifted off either end of the
   word and does not preserve the sign of the word (positive or
   negative).

   Logical shift is approriate when treating the word as a {bit
   string} or a sequence of {bit fields}, whereas {arithmetic
   shift} is appropriate when treating it as a binary number.
   The word to be shifted is usually stored in a {register}, or
   possibly in memory.

   (1996-07-02)