Bitwise Operations

Bitwise operators work directly on the binary representation of integers.

Operator	Meaning
&	AND – set bits that are 1 in both operands
`	`
^	XOR – set bits that are 1 in exactly one operand
~	NOT – flips every bit
<<	Left shift – multiplies by 2ⁿ (adds zeros on the right)
>>	Right shift – divides by 2ⁿ (implementation‑defined for signed)

Common uses: flags, masks, low‑level device drivers, graphics.