The basic reason to use these operators is that these operators are much faster in math and parseInt equivalents. In this tutorial, we will learn about the bitwise operators in JavaScript and learn about the need and use of these operators. In this article, we describe the types of bitwise operators with examples.
Types of bitwise operators
All bitwise operators deal with their operands in a set of 32-bits; these bits are in the form of binary digits. However, the result of these bits is shown in decimal form. In the following table, we are defining multiple bitwise operators in JavaScript with code examples.
Representation of Operators
| Name of Operators | Symbol of Operator | Example |
| AND Operator | & | a & b |
| OR Operator | | | a | b |
| NOT Operator | ~ | a ~ b |
| XOR Operator | ^ | a ^ b |
Note: The maximum and minimum representable integer ranges are defined in bitwise operators such as
- minimum representable integer range = -2147483648,
- maximum representable integer range = 2147483647.
Let’s know about each operator one by one along with a couple of examples.
AND operator in JavaScript
There is two operands in binary form (0,1) in the AND operator. Its output is 0, if any of the operands is 0 and returns 1 if both operands are 1. The outputs of AND table are shown in the given table.
Operations of AND Operator
| Operand 1 | Operand 2 | And Operation |
| 1 | 1 | 1 & 1=1 |
| 1 | 0 | 1 & 0=0 |
| 0 | 1 | 0 & 1=0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0& 0=0 |
Let’s have a look at an example for further explanation of AND operator.
Example
There are two integers 12 and 25 for the implementation of AND operator.
At the first step, both integers are converted into bits. The bit conversion of 12 and 25 is:
25 = 00000000000000000000000000011001.
After the conversion of integers, the AND operator is applied.
12 = 01100
25 = 011001
00001100
& 00011001
--------
00001000 = 8 // (In decimal)
The preceding zeros are removed for the sake of simplicity. After the implementation of AND operator, the answer is 00001000, which is equal to 8 in integers.
Program of bitwise AND Operator in JavaScript
let b = 25;
result = a & b;
console.log(result); // 8
OR operator in JavaScript:
There are two operands in binary form (0,1) in the OR operator. The output is 0, if both operands are 0s and output is 1 if any of one operand is 1. In the given table, all possible outputs of the OR operator are given:
Operations of OR Operator
| Operand 1 | Operand 2 | And Operation |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 =1 |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 =1 |
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 =1 |
| 0 | 0 | 0| 0 =0 |
Let’s have a look at an example for further explanation of OR operator.
Example
There are two integers 12 and 25 for the implementation of the OR operator.
First, we convert both integers into bits.The bit conversion of 12 and 25 is:
25 = 11001.
The preceding zeros are removed for the sake of simplicity.
12 = 01100
25 = 11001
// Bitwise OR Operation of 12 and 25
00001100
| 00011001
--------
00011101 = 29 // (In decimal)
After the conversion of integers, the OR operator is applied the answer is 11101, which is equal to 29.
Program of bitwise OR Operator in JavaScript
let a = 12;
let b = 25;
result = a | b;
console.log(result); // 29
XOR operator in JavaScript
There are two operands in binary form (0,1) in the XOR operator. It returns 0 as an output if both operands are the same and returns 1 as an output if both operands are different. In the given table all possible outputs of XOR operator are given:
Operations of XOR Operator
| Operand 1 | Operand 2 | And Operation |
| 1 | 1 | 1 ^ 1 = 0 |
| 1 | 0 | 1 ^ 0 = 1 |
| 0 | 1 | 0 ^ 1 = 1 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 ^ 0 = 0 |
Let’s have a look at an example for further explanation of XOR operator.
Example
There are two integers 12 and 25 for the implementation of the XOR operator.
First, we convert both integers into bits.The bit conversion of 12 and 25 is:
25 = 11001.
12 = 01100
25 = 11001
// Bitwise XOR Operation of 12 and 25
01100
^ 11001
-----
10101 = 21 // (In decimal)
After the conversion of integers, the XOR operator is applied, the answer is 11101, which is equal to 21.
Program of bitwise XOR Operator in JavaScript
let a = 12;
let b = 25;
result = a ^ b;
console.log(result); // 21
NOT Operator in JavaScript
NOT operator is called as negation operator. It converts the bits 1 to 0 and 0 to 1. It is a unary operator among all the bitwise operators.
Operations of NOT Operator
| Operand 1 | NOT Operation |
| 1 | (~1) = 0 |
| 0 | (~0) = 1 |
Let’s have a look at an example for further explanation of NOT operator.
Example
Since NOT operator is a unary operator; therefore, here we took only one operand (12) and applied Not operation on it.
First, convert the 12 into binary form:
The NOT operator will convert all 0’s into the 1’s and changes all 1’s into the 0’s.
12 = 00000000000000000000000000001100
// Bitwise Not Operation of 12
~ 00000000000000000000000000001100
---------------------------------
11111111111111111111111111110011 = -13 // (In decimal)
The answer will become 11111111111111111111111111110011, which is equal to -13 in integer form.
Program of bitwise NOT Operator in JavaScript
let b = 12;
result = ~b;
console.log(result); // -13
Conclusion
Bitwise operators are those which work on integers at binary level. There are total four bitwise operators in javascript: AND, OR, XOR, and NOT. This write-up explains all four bitwise types of operators and their working in JavaScript. We described all operators with their possible outputs in the form of tables. All operations are well explained by examples and codes.
