Bitwise

1 definition found

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  bitwise
       
           A bitwise operator treats its operands as a
          {vector} of {bit}s 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)